Rational Developer for System z

Adding a feature to an update site

This topic describes how to create an update site and how to add a feature to an update site.
After a new custom rule plug-in has been added to a feature, the next step in installing the plug-in is to add the feature to an update site. This is called publishing the feature on the site. This task is described in the following subtopics:

Creating an update site

This subtopic describes how to create an update site. Follow these steps:
  1. Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
  2. On the main menu click File > New > Project > Plug-in Development > Update Site Project. The New Update Site wizard opens.
  3. On the first page of the wizard, titled Update Site Project:
    1. Enter a project name in the Project name input field.
    2. Click Finish.
    The wizard does the following:
    • It creates the update site project and displays it in the Package Explorer. The project contains one item, a site.xml file.
    • It opens the site.xml file in the site manifest editor.
  4. If you want to publish a feature on the update site now, go directly to the next subtopic, Publishing a feature on an update site. Otherwise you can close the site manifest editor.

Publishing a feature on an update site

This subtopic describes how to publish a feature on an update site. Follow these steps:
  1. Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
  2. Open the update site with the site manifest editor:
    1. In the Package Explorer, expand the folder for the update site.
    2. Right-click the site.xml file and click Open With > Site Manifest Editor.
  3. In the site manifest editor:
    1. Add the feature to the site:
      1. Click the Site Map tab if it is not already the active tab.
      2. Click Add Feature. The Feature Selection window opens.
      3. In the window:
        1. In the list of features, click the feature that you want to add.
        2. Click OK.
        The site manifest editor adds an entry for the feature to the list of features on the left side of the Site Map tab under Managing the Site. At this time -- that is, before the feature is built -- the list entry for the feature consists of the feature ID followed by the version number of the feature in parentheses, for example:
        FP_0003_FeatureID (1.0.0.qualifier)
    2. Build the feature:
      1. On the Site Map tab, select the feature that was just added.
      2. Click Build. The site manifest editor creates the files needed to install the update site into the Developer for System z® environment.
      The site manifest editor does the following:
      1. It creates a new jar file containing the feature information and adds it to the Features folder of the update site project in the Project Explorer. The name of the jar file consists of the feature ID, followed by the underscore character and the feature version, followed by the date and time of the build, including minutes and seconds. For example,
        FP_0003_FeatureID_1.0.0.201205220911
      2. It creates a new jar file for each plug-in that the feature contains and adds the new jar file to the Plugins folder of the update site project in the Project Explorer. The name of this jar file consists of the project ID, followed by the underscore character and the project version, followed by the date and time of the build. For example,
        PIP_0001_ProjectID_1.0.0.201205220912
      3. It replaces the list entry for the feature in the list of features on the Site Map tab with the name of the new feature jar file.
    3. Close the site manifest editor.

Updating a feature in an update site

You can add multiple versions of the same feature to an update site, even if the content and the version numbers of the features are identical. This is possible because the site manifest editor includes the current date and time in the name of each feature jar file, making each name unique.

Therefore, adding an updated version of a feature to an update site is essentially just like adding a new original feature to the site update site. See the subtopic Publishing a feature on an update site.

There are two differences when you add an updated version of a feature:
  • First, you might want to delete the previous version or versions of the feature from the update site, if they are no longer going to be used. To delete a feature:
    1. Open the update site in the site manifest editor.
    2. In the list of features, right-click the feature that you want to delete.
    3. Click Delete.
  • Second, before you add the updated version of the feature to the update site, you might want to modify the version number of the feature, to allow you and other people to more easily distinguish this version of the feature from previous versions.


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