You can use libraries to manage large volumes of assets and asset metadata.
You can create a library to combine specific assets or to group assets that cannot be easily grouped by communities, categories, tags, and relationships.
You can also create a collection of asset metadata. For example, you can create a library for an asset type and all the required asset attributes, categories, and relationships that the asset type requires.
Although assets have version numbers with which you can track and manage changes, your custom asset types, attributes, categories, and relationships do not have a comparable method to manage changes. If you have a library of assets and metadata and another administrator changes or deletes an asset type, you can revert the library to restore the metadata to the repository from the saved version in a library.
To remove all the contained assets and metadata from active use on the repository, you can disable a repository library. Then, no other users can search for or reuse the disabled assets or metadata.
Likewise, you can enable a library to add all of the contained assets and metadata to the repository. Users can find and reuse the contained assets and metadata.
To create a .zip file of a library that you can import to another Rational Asset Manager repository, export a library.
Likewise, you can import a library and enable it to add all of the contained assets and asset metadata to the repository.
Although libraries are powerful tools for managing collections of assets and metadata, they have some restrictions.
For example, if an asset type named Web service requires an attribute named Application server, when you add the Web service asset type to a library, Rational Asset Manager automatically adds the Application server attribute to the library. You cannot remove the Application server attribute unless you remove the Web service asset type.
When you enable a library that conflicts with another library or with the repository, Rational Asset Manager attempts to resolve the conflicts by enabling the conflicting assets or metadata from the new library. The new library then overwrites the elements from the repository or from the libraries that are currently enabled. The original library and any conflicting elements that it contained are marked as dirty (*). That indication means that the element has changed from when that version of library was enabled.
For example, your repository has two libraries, Library 1 and Library 2, that both contain an asset type named Web service. Library 1 is enabled; Library 2 is not. When you enable Library 2, its version of the Web service asset type overwrites the Web service asset type from Library 1. The Web service asset type from Library 2 becomes the element that is active on the repository. On the Libraries page, Library 1 is marked with an asterisk, Library 1, version 1.0 (*), which indicates that its elements have been changed. On the overview page for Library 1, the asset type Web service is also marked with an asterisk, *Web service. That asterisk indicates that the Web service asset type in the library is different from the one that is currently active on the repository.
To restore the elements from Library 1 that were overwritten, you can revert the library. Reverting the library re-enables it as it was originally saved and overwrites any changes to the assets or elements that occurred after the library was enabled.