Static resources

Static resources allow you to define and organize resources and relationships in Business Service Composer projects. Static resources are defined by creating static definitions in the Static Definition panel of the Business Service Composer. You can create as many static resources as you require. You can arrange the resources in a hierarchy or as a flat list. If a resource is defined without a parent resource, it is displayed in the Business Service Composer as a child of the Static Definitions anchor. A resource can have one or more parents or one or more children.

When they are loaded into the Service Component Repository (SCR), static resources that do not already exist are created. If the static resource already exists in the SCR because it has been imported from another source, the SCR maintains a reference count to the resource from the source defined in the Business Service Composer project. It also maintains the original source of the resource.

Typically, you use the Business Service Composer to create a static resource for one of two reasons:
  1. To build all or part of the top level structure of a service model that cannot be imported from another source. To take full advantage of the Business Service Composer, one of the static resources is referenced by a policy pattern definition. This allows you to define a link with policy rule-matching resources. These static resources, which are a bridge between discovered resource instances and customer-defined resources, are referred to as touch point resources.
  2. The second reason that you might create a static resource is to reference one or more resources that are imported from another source. This allows you to use the imported resource as a touch point reference in a policy pattern. This technique allows the Business Service Composer to enhance business service models that might be partially provided by a source such as TADDM, with resources provided by another source.

Information required for static definitions

When you create a static definition, you must provide information about the resource. This information consists of:
  • A resource classification
  • The resource identity
  • A display name or label
The Business Service Composer limits the list of Common Data Model (CDM) classes to:
  • cdm:sys.BusinessSystem
  • cdm:app.Application
  • cdm:core.Collection

These classes have been chosen because they represent CDM classes that are typically at the higher levels of a service model and each can be properly identified with a single unique string. The identity string, also referred to as the naming string, is a string that uniquely identifies the resource that is being created.

This string must be unique for all static resource that are created within a particular Business Service Composer project. When the project is loaded into the SCR, the identity string is used to uniquely identify the resource and provides the SCR with the information that allows it to determine whether a new resource needs to be created or whether the resource has already been imported into the SCR.

For the cdm:sys.BusinessSystem, cdm:app.Application, and cdm:core.Collection classes, the cdm:Name attribute contains the identity string. This approach to the unique naming of statically-created resources provides a manageable naming strategy as well as a simple strategy for referencing resources from other import sources for the purpose of creating a touch point resource.

Although not required in the CDM specification, the Business Service Composer requires that you provide a display name value for the resource. This value is the string that is used as the label for the resource and does not have to be unique.