Rational Asset Manager complements existing build applications systems such as Rational Build Forge. You can use Rational Build Forge to create a build based on assets in Rational Asset Manager, and you can also use the integration to publish the build results as new assets in Rational Asset Manager. A set of supplied scripts enables you to download assets, check dependencies, compile, build, and deliver results as new assets.

In Rational Build Forge, you define a new build project to build and publish assets. The sources for the build are assets and artifacts in Rational Asset Manager and the builds can be published as assets in Rational Asset Manager.
For example, once the required files are set for the build and then, after you run the build and it completes, you can deploy the build results (such as a .ear file) as assets in Rational Asset Manager. Or, after the build results are saved as Rational Asset Manager assets, you can put the new assets and associated artifacts through a review process to ensure that they are approved for deployment (for example, before they published as a Milestone build).
You can mark a Build Type (such as Milestone or Golden Master) in Rational Build Forge to specify the type of review process for the new assets created from the build results. When a Rational Build Forge build completes, the published assets are listed in the build, and in Rational Asset Manager all dependencies are included in the new asset.
Developers can search for assets, artifacts and links to Rational Asset Manager artifacts and add them to their workspace. They can use the Visual Browse utility to see the relationships and dependencies between assets. The download asset script helps automate the delivery of the files to a build process. In Rational Build Forge, after logging in and creating a project, a developer can set the build project properties and complete other required steps to deliver the build results.
For a demonstration of the integration and a sample library and build project, see http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016509 or http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/lp/demos/summary/r-assetmanagerrbf.html
Refer to the source code files to the build server by using the appropriate extract command library to extract the source files from the software configuration management (SCM) system, such as Rational ClearCase® or Rational Team Concert™. You must extract source code files from a SCM system for the build to use, such as the download tools including the Rational Asset Manager client library so that the DownloadAsset and other ANT scripts can be used on the Rational Build Forge server. You must provide the SCM system information for the build project, such as the server URL, user ID, and password.
You can use AppScan® to scan all the source and libraries that are included in the project.
You can use the sample files to define a new project with a set of libraries and configuration information by importing the contents of the .zip file by importing the eligibility.xml file. The sample files are available at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/lp/demos/summary/r-assetmanagerrbf.html. Rational Build Forge recreates the eligibility project when you load the eligibility.xml file. Select Libraries and then choose a library, such as GetRamLibraries, to retrieve the ramclient.zip file. Then, modify these files for your configuration. You must also modify the ANT scripts and add them to the Rational Build Forge project.
Rational Asset Manager includes a policy that you can use to run a Rational Build Forge project at specific points in the lifecycle of assets. For example, if a software asset moves from a development state into a staged state in preparation for testing, you might want to run a Rational Build Forge project that automatically builds the software and deploy it for others to see.
For more information about policies and lifecycles, see Policies for lifecycles in Rational Asset Manager, Asset development and lifecycles, and Creating custom lifecycles.