The Project Model

The Workspace

When you start the CE you will be prompted to select a workspace directory. The workspace directory is where the CE stores all your IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator projects and files. This is different from the solution directory, though the workspace directory may very well be contained inside the solution directory. From the workspace, the CE gathers files to form a runtime configuration file (rs.xml) that can be executed on an IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator server. Files and projects in the workspace can be thought of as the source for various runtime configuration files.

Installation Directory, Solution Directory and the Working directory

Some confusion might arise from having three different directories in play. As stated in the previous section, the workspace directory belongs to the CE where the project files are stored. The installation and solution directories belong to the IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator server when it executes. However, when you configure a connector in the CE for example, you will often use the discover attributes function; this will cause the CE to open the connector and execute operations on the connector. Since some connectors use file names for multiple purposes, it can be confusing when relative paths are used. For this reason, the default working directory for the CE should always be the same as the solution directory you are primarily working with¹. Primarily, since it is possible to create several servers and solution directories inside the CE. You can still work with those and run AssemblyLines on those servers, but relative paths in configurations are no longer the same when you use connectors in the CE as opposed to using them when you run the AssemblyLine.

Consider a configuration with a file connector using abc.txt as its input file. When you use discover attributes in the CE it will look for a file in the working directory of the CE (the preferred solution directory specified at installation time). When you run the AssemblyLine with this connector everything looks fine. Then you create a new server with a solution directory pointing somewhere else than the current working directory. You configure the connector and the connector resolves the file name to the correct place (that is, the abc file resides in your current working directory). However, when you run the AssemblyLine it fails, since it can't find the file. This is because the new server runs in a different working directory (the solution directory) than the CE.

By default, the working directory of the CE is set to the solution directory of the default server that is used to execute AssemblyLines. So if you don't change anything you should not see any of these problems except when you create new solution directories or change the solution directory of the default server.

The Workbench

The workbench is the main user interface application in which you perform all configuration and development of IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator solutions. The workbench consists of a number of views and editors that let you do this.

• The IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Servers view
• The IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Project
  To develop an IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator solution you must first create an IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Project. A project in Eclipse is a collection of related files and resources.
• Configuration Files
  The configuration file (Config) run by a server is a composite XML document in which AssemblyLines, connectors and so forth are all part of the same document. In the IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Eclipse CE each of these components are allocated their own physical file. These files only contain one configuration object.
• The Project Builder
  A custom project builder is associated with the project whose purpose is to assemble all artifacts into a runnable configuration file.
• Properties and substitution
  Every IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator project is associated with an IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator server. The associated server is the server that will be used to execute the AssemblyLines in the project. Since the server may be located on a different machine, the project model must provide access to properties through local copies of chosen property stores.

¹ The working directory should not be confused with the workspace. The workspace is the area where the project files are stored; the working directory is the position in the file system that defines all non-fully qualified filenames. For portability reasons, this should be the solution directory.