Last modified on 15 December 2016, at 15:27

Configure the ACM

Revision as of 15:27, 15 December 2016 by NWE (Talk | contribs)

The ACM (Application Context Management) is about controlling how UBIK® satellites see data provided by the UBIK® environment via web service (or the web client).

This page describes how to configure the ACM using UBIK® Studio or UBIK® SmartStudio, including creating Application and Context, Scopes, View and View Items and publishing the Meta Definitions.

UBIK® SmartStudio

With UBIK® SmartStudio, you can assemble the whole ACM graphically; the technical details are edited automatically by UBIK® SmartStudio, so it is significantly less work (you don't have to care about View Items at all, you just create Scopes and connect them, using drag & drop). On the other hand, only 1 : N connections can be created using UBIK® SmartStudio (at least for the alpha version at the time this article was created!). UBIK® SmartStudio tries to satisfy all common, major use cases in a comfortable manner, at the cost of detail functionality. The set of relevant features will be maintained in future versions.

  1. Open UBIK® SmartStudio.
  2. Create a new project or open an existing one.
  3. If necessary, design new Meta Classes (for objects to provide to the client) using the Inheritance Graph or connect to a UBIK® environment (database) and use the Meta Classes defined there.
  4. Open a new Application Graph worksheet.
  5. Create Application and Context objects and connect them.
  6. Use drag & drop to define Scopes for previously created Meta Classes (available in pickers on the left side).
  7. Connect the Scopes in order to define the hierarchy. Also connect at least one Scope to the Context as a child.
  8. If necessary, define queries for the root and infrastructure objects and connect them to the Context as input elements.
  9. Make sure the target UBIK® environment is connected.
  10. Perform the staging process for saving the new Application Graph to the UBIK® environment (database).
  11. Open the UBIK® environment page and select the ACM management sub-section.
  12. Publish the Meta Definitions.
  13. Restart the UBIK® web services.
  14. Test the results using any UBIK® satellite.

UBIK® Studio

UBIK® Studio provides a higher grade of technical detail and more possibilities. If you cannot satisfy your demands using UBIK® SmartStudio, e.g. if you need to create N : M connections, you can use UBIK® Studio.

  1. Start UBIK® Studio and connect to a database.
  2. If necessary, create new Meta Classes for objects to provide to the client.
  3. Create Application, Context and View instances using the bulk editor for the respective MetaClasses (Application, Context, View).
  4. Find out which different connections your ACM hierarchy should provide; more specifically, which parent meta classes should lead to which child meta classes, and what kind of View Items you need for that (depending on how the children should be evaluated technically).
  5. If necessary, modify the Meta Classes so they can describe their parents or children. The way to do this depends on the type of View Item you're going to use, e.g. for a Reference View Item, you'll have to create a Reference and add a respective Reference Meta Property to the Meta Class that describes the children, in order for the child instances to refer to their parents using this Reference. Make sure the target type is set correctly.
  6. Create and configure View Item instances (of the System Meta Class REFERENCEVIEWITEM, RELATIONVIEWITEM or QUERYVIEWITEM) for each level of the hierarchy and every parent & child type (Meta Class) using the bulk editor.
  7. Connect the View Items to the View (see Create a new View)
  8. Create Scopes as instances of the METACLASSSCOPE System Meta Class (or QUERYSCOPE for queries).
  9. Use the Relation editor to define MetaProperties for your Scopes. Using the Relation Data inspector, you can edit rights for each property.
  10. Connect the Context to the Application and add all necessary Scopes to the Context using relations (see Create a new MetaClassScope, point 6).
  11. Connect the root and infrastructure objects and/or queries to the Context.
  12. If necessary, manage the content objects to be delivered by the ACM (e.g., create or import the data and fill in reference property values).
  13. Open the ACM Manager and publish the Context's Meta Definitions.
  14. Restart the UBIK® web services.
  15. Test the results using any UBIK® satellite.

See also