Creating an application

The process for creating your own application includes the following general steps:

Create an application template (XML file) in the Templates directory.
Create an application directory inside the Applications directory. Modify certain files in the directory to define the application shortcut displayed on the launchpad and to customize the look and feel of the application, if desired, by overriding the default settings.

All files are stored and edited on the machine where IBM® SPSS® Collaboration and Deployment Services is installed (for example, C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS\Deployment\8.0\components\decision-management).

Important: Before starting, it is recommend that a backup copy of the entire decision-management directory be created.

To create an application

Prebuilt applications are installed with IBM Analytical Decision Management. Rather than creating an application from scratch, it's easiest to copy the existing prebuilt application that best matches your desired application and then modify it to fit your needs.

Copy an existing application template XML file and give it a new file name. This example uses the file name YourApp.xml. XML templates are stored in the Templates directory shown in the previous figure.
Open the XML template you renamed. Change the value for templateName to the file name you gave the new XML template in step 1 (you don't need to include the file extension):
```
templateName="YourApp"
```
Tip: Although XML files can be edited using any text editor, a number of XML editing tools are available that have options to display annotations and validate the XML markup against the workspace.xsd product schema.
Configure the rest of the XML application template to meet your needs, and save the file. See the rest of this chapter for more information.
Each application has a corresponding folder in the Applications directory. Create a new folder for your application. You may want to give it a name that matches your application template file name. In this example, the folder name is YourApp.
In the folder for an existing application that best matches your new application, copy over any files you plan to customize (for example, copy files from the ClaimsManagement folder into the new YourApp folder). You do not need to stop any servers while doing this.
Rather than copying over only the pieces you plan to customize, you could also copy an entire folder's contents. But this is not recommended because it can make upgrading to new versions of the software more complicated.
Each application directory contains a file called appGroup.xml. The file defines the location of various resources specific to an application. Edit your application's appGroup.xml file. Following is an example for a custom application template (YourApp) that uses all the existing Claims Management stylesheets, screen text, etc.
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<ApplicationGroups xmlns:ns2="http://com.spss.pasw.dms/dataset" xmlns="http://com.spss.pasw.dms/appGroups">
<Group mustDisplay="true" template="YourApp">
       <CssFileSpec>/Applications/ClaimsManagement/CSS/branded.css</CssFileSpec>
       <ScreenTextFileSpec>/Applications/ClaimsManagement/ScreenText/</ScreenTextFileSpec>
       <CoachTextFileSpec>/Applications/ClaimsManagement/CoachText/</CoachTextFileSpec>
       <TermFileSpec>/Applications/ClaimsManagement/Terminology/</TermFileSpec>
       <HelpFileSpec>/Applications/ClaimsManagement/HelpLinks/HelpLinks.properties</HelpFileSpec>
</Group>
</ApplicationGroups>
```
Where:
- mustDisplay="true" determines whether a shortcut to the new application appears on the launch page for all users. If set to true, all users will see the application shortcut and will not be able to remove it. If set to false, users can add and remove the shortcut as they wish.
- CssFileSpec, ScreenTextFileSpec, CoachTextFileSpec, TermFileSpec, and HelpFileSpec can point to the location of customized user interface files, if applicable. The customized files will override the default files. These sections are only required if you customize one or more of these files. In this example, almost all files are being customized. A typical application might only customize some CSS, coach text, and screen text, in which case appGroup.xml would only contain those lines and the default settings would be applied for everything else. For complete details and instructions, see File locations after completing the steps in this chapter.
Help specific to each prebuilt application is provided in the online Knowledge Center, along with all other IBM Analytical Decision Management documentation and all other SPSS and IBM documentation. Use the Knowledge Center's table of contents to jump to documentation for any application or product as desired.

The HelpFileSpec can be used to specify which section of the Knowledge Center is used in an application. You should typically have no reason to change it. To provide custom help for an application, coach text is recommended. Coach text is distinct from help, and can be fully customized. See the topic Coach text for more information.
Each application directory contains a file called description.xml. The file defines the text displayed in the Applications launch page shortcut box.
The file contains sections for all languages provided with the product. You can add a different language section of your choice, using a language code according to W3C standards (see the table under Language support for examples). Edit your application's description.xml file. For example:
```
<en>
       <TitleEntry>My App for Handling Claims</TitleEntry>
       <ShortDescription>Intelligent risk management in real time</ShortDescription>
       <LongDescription>Assess the overall risk level for incoming claims and recommend
        the specific action to take.
       </LongDescription>
</en>
```
Tip: While configuring your application(s), you may find it convenient to share the entire decision-management directory so you can edit the files from other machines on your network. See your operating system documentation for details about sharing directories.
When you finish configuring your application, enter the following URL in a supported web browser to launch IBM Analytical Decision Management and verify your work. You should see the IBM Analytical Decision Management login screen.
http://hostname:port/DM

Where hostname is the name or IP address of the machine where IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services is installed and port is your application server port number.

If you have problems accessing the IBM Analytical Decision Management URL or any IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services URLs, an administrator may have customized them. Contact your administrator. More information is available in the Application context roots chapter of the IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services Repository Installation and Configuration Guide.