Working with Shared and Proxy Components

As an Application Developer, you can use Shared Components to minimize the design effort of new Components.

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About Shared and Proxy Components

Shared Components are predefined Components that can be reused in different Applications. A Shared Component does not depend on any Application and can be used more than once within the same Application.

The Component that references the properties defined in a Shared Component (for example: Workflow, Dynamic Properties) is called Proxy Component. Any changes made to the Shared Component are propagated to all related Proxy Components.

Viewing Shared Components

Shared Components are managed within the Release Automation perspective.

Important! By default, all users and user groups can access all Shared Components, use them in their Applications and execute the corresponding deployment Workflows. name of the folder where the shared components are stored can be configured in the integration.config file (default value: ARA.SHARED_COMPONENTS).

Shared Components List

To open the list, click Shared Components on the navigation pane.

From this list you can:

  • See the list of Shared Components you have read access to
  • Trigger the most common Actions from the toolbar

Creating Shared Components

  1. Click the Create button in the toolbar. The Create Component dialog is displayed.

    Consider the following:

    • The Component Name must be unique and can only contain

    • The Type list displays all types for which you have permissions.

      Note: The custom types defined for Components also apply to Shared Components.

    • The type cannot be changed after creating the Component
  2. Click Create.

Creating Shared Components from "Regular" Components

Creating/Updating Shared Component Packs

As an Application Developer, you can easily export/import Shared Components via Plug-in Manager/Package Manager. To do this, first you must create Component Packs containing the serialized content of a Component.

To Create Component Packs (GUI)

  1. Go to the Release Automation perspective.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Right-click a Shared Component and select one of the following options:

      • Add to Component Pack

        Click it to create a Component Pack.

      • Component Pack > Save

        If a Pack for this Component already exists, this option is shown instead. Click it to update the information that is contained in the Pack.

    • Double-click a Shared Component to open it and click the Properties tab.

      Click the Component Pack drop-down in the toolbar and select Save.

  3. Enter a new title (name) for the Component Pack or edit the existing one:

    • The recommended naming convention is PCK.COMP.[Component Pack Name]
    • Name/Title fields can contain up to 174 characters.
    • The name must be unique and may only contain alphanumeric characters, ".", "-", "_", "@", "$", "#"
    • Special characters and space characters are not supported. They are replaced by underscores.

  4. Enter a new version number or leave the default value.

    Notes:

    • If the default value remains unchanged, saving your changes creates a new minor version of the Pack.
    • For manually defined versions, only semantic versioning is supported. Example: 1.0.0+HF.1
    • Performing concurrent saves is not supported.
  5. Click Add/Save.

Note: For more information on how to export and download Packs, see: Exporting Packs

Changing the Properties of a Shared Component

To change the properties of a Shared Component, you can use:

  • The Component Sidebar next to the Shared Component list
  • The Properties section of a Shared Component

You can change the following properties:

  • General

    Basic attributes of the Component. You can edit the Name, Folder, and Owner.

  • Description

    The description is limited to 4000 characters.

  • Deployment

    The Targets on which the Component should be installed.

    You do not specify a Target directly, but select a type that the target must play (for example, Web Server). You can limit the targets by specifying more filters. During deployment preparation, only Targets matching the criteria of the component are suggested as Targets.

    If you select a Target and then change it, all filters are deleted and have to be recreated. If you do not select a Target, the Targets must be picked manually during deployment preparation.

    Adding/changing/removing filters works like defining for a custom view (see Filters). You can only add filters if you have selected a target type.

  • Shared Component Pack (optional)

    This section displays the properties (version, name and folder) of the Shared Component Pack. See: Creating/Updating Shared Component Packs.

  • Actions

    Actions are located in the toolbar. They can be also triggered from the context menu that is displayed after right-clicking the entity. You can trigger the following actions (depending on your permissions):

    • Delete see Deleting Components

  • Errors and Warnings

    This panel shows errors and warnings in the context of the current Application. If there are no errors or warnings, the panel is not displayed.

  • Custom Properties

    The selected object may have more properties and property groups, that are defined by the administrator. If defined, these properties are shown in the sidebar as separate panels and you can edit them.

  • Statistics & History

Creating a Workflow for a Shared Component

  1. Open the Release Automation perspective.
  2. Click the Shared Components tab.
  3. Open a Shared Component.
  4. Click the Workflows tab in the General section.
  5. Click the Create Workflow button in the toolbar.
  6. Provide the following information in the dialog:

    • Name: Enter a name for the Workflow. The name must be unique within the Shared Component.

    • Type

      After creating a Workflow, you cannot change its type. 

      The list contains all custom workflow types that are defined in your system. The types available are: Install, Uninstall.

    Notes:

    • The workflow is created in the Automation Engine according to the following naming convention: RM.<CDA-PermissionFolder>.<SharedComponentName>.<SharedComponentWorkflowName> and stored in the folder ARA.SHARED_COMPONENTS/<SharedComponent-name>.
    • The prefix ARA.SHARED_COMPONENTS is defined in integration.config file.
    • The Custom/Dynamic properties of a Shared Component can be referenced from another Component via Component Links. For more information, see: Working with Component Links

Changing the Properties of a Shared Component Workflow

To change the properties of a Component Workflow, you can use:

  • The Component Sidebar next to the Component Workflow list
  • The Properties section of a Component Workflow

You can change the following Component Workflow properties:

  • General

    Basic attributes of the Component. Only the Name is editable.

  • Description

    The description is limited to 4000 characters.

  • Actions

    Actions are located in the toolbar. They can be also triggered from the context menu that is displayed after right-clicking the entity. You can trigger the following actions (depending on your permissions):

    • Delete

  • Statistics & History

Using Shared Components in an Application

The Shared Components used in an Application are known as Proxy Components.

  1. Open the Release Automation perspective and click the Applications tab.
  2. Double-click an Application to open it.
  3. Click the Components tab in the navigator pane.
  4. Click the Reuse button in the toolbar.
  5. Enter a name for the Component (the name must be unique within the Application).
  6. Select the Shared Component upon which the new Component will be based.

Using the Workflow of a Shared Component within an Application Workflow

Components based on Shared Components are listed in the Components list, along with the "regular" Components.

When you drag a Component based on a Shared Component (also known as Proxy Component) into an Application Workflow, you must select in the dialog which Workflow of the Shared Component should be used.

Important!

  • The dynamic property values defined on the Shared Component and the custom property values set on a Proxy Component are used for the execution of the Component Workflow.
  • Shared Component Workflows are usually stored in a different folder than Application Workflows. To prevent runtime errors, make sure you have execute permissions on both folders. For more information, see: Granting Release Automation Folder Authorizations
  • The alias of a Proxy Component Workflow cannot be edited. For more information, see: Name, Title, and Alias

Editing Shared Components

To change the properties of a Shared Component, you can use:

  • The Component Sidebar next to the Component list
  • The Properties section of a Component

You can change the following Component properties:

  • General

    Basic attributes of the Component. You can edit the Name, Folder, and Owner.

  • Description

    The description is limited to 4000 characters.

  • Deployment

    The Targets on which the Component should be installed.

    You do not specify a Target directly, but select a type that the target must play (for example, Web Server). You can limit the targets by specifying more filters. During deployment preparation, only Targets matching the criteria of the component are suggested as Targets.

    If you select a Target and then change it, all filters are deleted and have to be recreated. If you do not select a Target, the Targets must be picked manually during deployment preparation.

    Adding/changing/removing filters works like defining for a custom view (see Filters). You can only add filters if you have selected a target type.

  • Actions

    Actions are located in the toolbar. They can be also triggered from the context menu that is displayed after right-clicking the entity. You can trigger the following actions (depending on your permissions):

    • Delete: see Deleting Components

  • Errors and Warnings

    This panel shows errors and warnings in the context of the current Application. If there are no errors or warnings, the panel is not displayed.

  • Custom Properties

    The selected object may have more properties and property groups, that are defined by the administrator. If defined, these properties are shown in the sidebar as separate panels and you can edit them.

  • Statistics & History

Deleting Shared Components

Conditions to delete Shared Components

  • It is not used in any Application Workflow (as a Proxy Component).

Important! Deleting a Shared Component also deletes its Component Workflows in CDA and in the AE.

Deleting Shared Component Workflows

Conditions to delete Shared Component Workflows

  • The AE Workflow is not used in any Application Workflow.
  • You have enough permissions on the Component.

Defining Dynamic Properties

In the Dynamic Properties section, you can define dynamic properties for Shared Components that can be used in deployments. See Working with Dynamic Properties.

The following system-defined dynamic properties are available in addition to the custom dynamic properties and the custom properties (in the /custom namespace):

  • /system/name

    Component name

  • /system/type

    Component type

  • /system/owner

    Display name of the owner to which the Component belongs.

Notes:

  • You can also search for dynamic properties using the Global Search.
  • Shared Components have its own evaluation settings. The evaluation settings are overridden if the Proxy Component is opened.