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This article contains the following sections:
- Deploying composite application NSFs
- Deploying NSF components
- Deploying Eclipse components
Now that you have been provided with some background information on how to link to components in composite applications, we will now discuss the initial deployment of a composite application.
As described earlier, composite applications are definitions of applications with a list of links to internal components that connected by property wires. To successfully deploy composite applications, different "artifacts" must be deployed. These artifacts are "pieces" of the composite application that can be used to create or modify the application in a deployment environment. For the sake of this deployment discussion, we are concerned with the following artifacts:
- Composite application definitions (CA.XML) - stored as design notes in NSFs
- NSF components - "classic" Notes databases
- Eclipse components- typically stored in NSFs using the UPDATESITE.NTF
As described earlier, NSF components and Eclipse are referred to via static or dynamic links. In order to deploy a composite application it is desirable that you should not have to change the composite application definition, referred to as CA.XML. This is to avoid the problem of having to fix broken links later on. It is recommended that you use dynamic links in composite applications before deploying them. Typically, a developer might start with static links when first developing the composite application and the components. Before deploying the application, however static links should be replaced with dynamic links.
If dynamic links are used, the deployment of the composite application (including components) can be accomplished much like you would normally deploy NSFs with Notes Release 7 before composite applications were introduced. No post-deployment steps are necessary. The following sections provide more detail on the necessary procedure(s).
Note: Since this procedure may involve the use of use replica IDs, the database of a referenced component needs to have been opened or 'realized' on the Notes client.
Deploying composite application NSFs
To deploy composite application NSFs, composite application definitions need to be put in the NSFs and then deployed as any other NSF. If dynamic links to NSF components are used, the links to these components need to be set in a profile documents. The procedure for creating these profile documents was explained earlier in this article.
Deploying NSF components
To replace static links with dynamic links when deploying NSF components, the property "com.ibm.notes.ComputedNotesURL" needs to be defined for each single NSF component. This can be done using the Composite Application Editor and is described earlier in this document.
As mentioned, in order to set the actual links, values have to be set in profile documents. This is a deployment step that needs to be done
before the actual NSF is deployed. This procedure is also described earlier in this document. The profile documents reside in the database with the CA.XML -
not in the actual NSF component databases.
If static links to NSF components are used (for example, to avoid the extra work of creating profile documents), links to the Domino servers in the development environment can be replaced with links to the Domino servers in the production environment.
The Composite Application Editor has a "Property Value Editor" that lets you do a "search and replace" for all Notes URLs or Notes URLs with a certain Domino server name. This lets you easily replace all server names using one tool rather than having to go into each NSF component's "Advanced component properties" dialog and do it there. Refer to the Composite Application Editor online help for more information.
Deploying Eclipse components
When deploying Eclipse components, the Eclipse components should be put in NSF-based update sites and accessed via NRPC URLs. Refer to the "Creating and using an NSF-based update site" topic of the "Managing client plug-in deployment" section of the Domino Administrator help for more information.
To replace static links with dynamic links in Eclipse components, the "url.feature" properties just have to be removed. Again, the Property Value Editor in Composite Application Editor can be used to do this.
If for some reason static links to Eclipse components must be used, the Property Value Editor can also be used to replace the development server names in the NRPC URLs with the production server names. Correct NRPC URL syntax was provide earlier in this article.
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