Graphical resource editor

From ControlTier

The ControlTier server hosts a graphical tool to manage the ControlTier Resource model letting you define resources of any type declared in your project. Interfaces are provided to search and browse existing resources and specialized views organizes resources by several of the core types.

Workbench's resource model editing features are the graphical counterpart to the ProjectBuilder command line utility and project.xml.

Login

From the server landing page click the link to "Workbench". Enter the user name and password provided by the administrator that maintains the ControlTier server.

Project

If this is a new ControlTier installation, create a project using these instructions: Creating a project.

Home page

After logging in and choosing a project you will be redirected to the main entry page. From the home page, you can click one of the four large icons to browse resources of that general category. Pressing the "Search" button will take you to the #Search form. The "Admin" button will take you to the #Admin page.

You can return to this page from anywhere in the application by pressing the "Workbench" icon in the top left of the page.

Top navigation bar

The top navigation bar provides links to change projects, switch to another application and logout.

To change projects, press the blue text displaying the current project (e.g., "demo"). A popup menu will be displayed prompting you to "Choose a Project". Selecting another project will reload the page to that project home page. To cancel the menu, press the "X" icon.

The user name you logged in as is displayed on the right of the icon. To logout, press the text labeled "logout".

This will exit the login session and return you to the Login page.

Search form

You can access the search form from the #Home page. In the top right, you will see the "Search" button. Pressing that reveals the search form with text fields and the "Browse Types" button. Pressing the "Browse Types" button takes you to the #Type browser.

Type search

The Type search form lets you find resource types by name. Input the name of the type you are looking for into the text field and hit return. Search strings are not case sensitive. You can also use regular expressions.

Matching types are listed in a results page. The results page also contains the type search form, so you can re-enter a search string there.

Object search

The Search Objects form allows a user to type in a string and search by type of keyword.

The popup menu allows you to search for resources using different keyword types:

By Name: Search for objects that match the given string
By Type: Search for objects that are of the type specified in the text field
By Author: Search for objects created by the specified user
Any field: Search for objects that have the specified string in any of its properties

Pressing the icon will start the search and display the results page.

The results page provides a count of matching resources and has a number of buttons to display the search form again.

Type browser

The graphical editor includes a type browser that provides an interface to browse navigate the inheritance structure of the type model. All type editing pages include this type browser on the right hand of the page.

You can also access this type browser from the "Search" form in the home page. Pressing the "Browse Types" button will expand the type browser and reveal one level of the type inheritance hierarchy. Pressing the gray triangles to the left of the type name will show or hide that types subtypes.

You can navigate through the type inheritance hierarchy via the type browser. To the right of each type name is another button that when pressed will re-orient the type browser to focus on that type. The Subtypes and Supertypes views will be re-displayed accordingly. The type browser lets you look through the types without leaving the page your on.

Admin page

The Admin page contains an array of buttons to manage ControlTier projects:

Version History: View model history (disabled by default)
Users: Manage user roles (only if JNDI authorization)
Create Project: Create a new project
Unarchive: Upload a "project archive" (PAR)
Remove project: This will archive (generating a PAR) and delete the project
Import Seed: Upload a module library archive (aka seed).
Create Archive: Create a project archive (PAR)
Regenerate deployments.properties file: Generates a deployments.properties file and stores it on the File share
Module import: Import a module archive

Navigation views

Resources are organized into several navigation views based on several of the core types. Nodes registered in the project are contained in the "Node Manager". Packages stored in the File share are found in "Package Manager", as are Builders that can be configured to import them. Application Services and their logical groupings, called Sites, are found in the "Service Manager". Finally, Updaters used to coordinate continuous deployment are found in the "Process Manager".

The primary purpose of these resource views is to help organize the resource model into broad categories. By traversing resource relationships, it is often possible to move from one navigation view to another. When viewing any particular resource, similar detailed views and editing controls are shown.

Menus

Navigation Menu

Two menus provide a quick method to change to one of the four navigation views.

The menu on the left side of the page is broken into a main menu and submenu. The main menu allows you to change to one of the main four views:

Once a navigation view has been selected, the submenu can be used to go to the List or Summary page for that view.

Alternatively, press "Switch to a different tool..." and a navigation Menu listing all the different resource views is shown in one long list.

Node Manager

The Node Manager displays all registered Node resources in the resource model for the project.

Node list

The "Node List" menu item can be selected to list Node resources. Each node is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Node
The node name (eg "strongbad" )is a link that will let you view just that Node in detail. This column also displays the Node's description and any tags.
Deployments represent child resources related to that Node.
Packages represent child resources, both direct and indirect, related to that Node.

Node view

Clicking the link for a node in the Node List, will display detail about that node. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Node's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal child Deployments and Packages. You can access this information from the "Child Resources" area, too.

Below the tabs, the Node's metadata and attributes are listed (e.g., "OS Family", "OS Name", etc.).

Package Manager

The Package Manager contains Packages and Builders.

Package Manager

Package list

Pressing the Package List icon displays all Package resources stored in the File share. Each Package is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Package
The Package name (eg, "apache-tomcat-5.5.28.zip") is a link that will let you view just that Package in detail. This column also displays the Package's description and any tags.
Deployments represent parent resources related to that Package.
Nodes represent parent resources, both direct and indirect, related to that Package.

Package view

Clicking the link for a package in the Package List, will display detail about that package. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Package's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal parent Deployments and Packages. You can access this information from the "Parent Resources" area, too.

Below the tabs, the Package's metadata and attributes are listed (e.g., "Filename", "Filetype", etc.).

Builder list

Pressing the Builder List icon displays all Builder resources registered to the project resource model. Each Builder is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Builder
The Builder name (e.g., "simple-builder") is a link that will let you view just that Builder in detail. This column also displays the Builder's description and any tags.
Nodes represent parent resources related to that Builder.

Builder view

Clicking the link for a builder in the Builder List, will display detail about that Builder. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Builder's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal related Nodes. You can access this information from the "Child Resources" or "Parent Resources" areas, too.

Below the tabs, the Builder's metadata and attributes are listed (e.g., "Base Directory", "buildFile", etc.).

Service Manager

The Service Manager contains Services and Sites.

Service Manager

Service list

Pressing the Service List icon displays all Service resources registered in the project resource model. Each Service is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Service
The Service name (e.g., "simpleTomcat") is a link that will let you view just that Service in detail. This column also displays the Service's description and any tags.
Package represent child resources related to that Service.
Nodes represent parent resources related to that Service.

Service view

Clicking the link for a service in the Service List, will display detail about that Service. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Service's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal related Packages and Nodes. You can access this information from the "Child Resources" or "Parent Resources" areas, too.

Below the tabs, the Service's metadata and attributes are listed (e.g., "Base Directory", "service-isdown-script").

Site list

Pressing the Site List icon displays all Site resources registered in the project resource model.

Each Site is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Site
The Site name (e.g., "simple") is a link that will let you view just that Site in detail. This column also displays the Site's description and any tags.
Package represent child resources related to that Site.
Nodes represent parent resources related to that Site.

Site view

Clicking the link for a site in the Site List, will display detail about that Site. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Site's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal related Packages and Nodes. You can access this information from the "Child Resources" or "Parent Resources" areas, too.

Below the tabs, the Site's metadata and attributes are listed.

Process Manager

Updater list

Pressing the Updater List icon displays all Updater resources registered in the project resource model. Each Updater is displayed on its own row, organized into several columns.

A icon to the far left, will display more detail for the Updater
The Updater name (e.g., "simple") is a link that will let you view just that Updater in detail. This column also displays the Updater's description and any tags.
Nodes represent parent resources related to that Updater.

Updater view

Clicking the link for a node in the Updater List, will display detail about that Updater. Like the #Resource View page for any resource, beneath the Updater's name, description and type, is a button toolbar and tabs. To the right are disclosure icons that reveal related Nodes. You can access this information from the "Child Resources" or "Parent Resources" areas, too.

Below the tabs, the Updater's metadata and attributes are listed.

Resource View

When an individual resource is selected from a List view, the resource is displayed in its own view page. To return to the list view, click the link that says to "← Return to XXX List".

The resource view page is the same for any kind of resource, and is organized in a standard layout. The graphic below provides a legend to the main areas of the resource view.

The function and use of each area of the view page is described in the following sections.

Search Browse

Search/Browse

The Search Browse tool provides methods to search or navigate to other resources in the model.

The #Search objects form (described earlier) allows a user to search for resources by entering a search string and choosing the type of keyword.

The "Browse Objects by Type" provides a dynamic browser that lets you navigate objects via the type hierarchy. Navigation works similar to the Type Browser in the Graphical type editor.

A green button can be pressed to create an instance of the chosen Type.
Pressing the icon will list instances of that type.
The icon will show subtypes for that Type.

Toolbar

The toolbar provides buttons to access a number of operations.

Edit: Edit the resource definition. Go to the #Edit form
Copy: Create a copy of this resource. Go to the #Copy form
Graph: Display a graph showing the resource relationships. Go to the #Graph form
XML: Generate an XML view of this resource's definition. Go to the #XML view
Remove: Remove the resource from the project resource model. Go to the #Remove form
Lock: Lock the resource to prevent further modification. Go to the #Lock form

Edit form

Edit form buttons

Pressing the toolbar icon directs the browser to the Edit form. The edit form displays a set of text fields to modify the resource's property values. After making any modifications, pressing the "Save" button will store the values in the resource model. Pressing the "Cancel" button directs the browser back to the view page for that resource.

The edit form may display popup menus next to the text fields, if the Type has declared a string constraint for that property value. The constraint can be set set to enforced or unenforced. If the constraint is enforced, the the text field will not be editable and only values from the popup menu can be used.

Copy form

The Copy form allows you to create a new resource based on the property values of another.
Pressing the toolbar icon directs the browser to the Edit form with the text fields already populated.

If the resource has child or parent dependencies, the browser is directed to an intermediate form where you can choose to duplicate the child and parent resource relationships.

After making the selections, pressing the "Continue..." button directs the browser to the resource edit form where you can customize any other property field. Press "Save" when you are done.

Graph form

Resource relationships can be graphed using the Graph form.
Press the toolbar icon to be directed to the graph page. The shape displayed with green fill, is the resource "in focus". Clicking the green shape, will reorient the form to show that resource's parent resources. Clicking the green shape again orients the graph to show the resource's child resources.

The graph view contains a "Graphs Controls" popup window that lets you control what information is included in the graph.

Clicking on any shape in the graph will set the focus of the graph to that resource thus you can traverse the entire resource model by navigating through resource relationships.

To return to the resource view page, click the link in the top left of the graph.

XML view

It is often desirable to manage the resource model definition as an XML file (i.e., rather than relying on this graphical editor). Resource definitions can be written in XML with a text editor and later uploaded to the ControlTier server. The XML definition must adhere to the project.xml schema.

Pressing the toolbar icon will generate the XML definition for the resource.

Depending on your browser, it might be necessary to "View Source" to see the generated XML.

Remove form

Press the toolbar icon to remove the resource. This will direct the browser to the remove form. If the resource has parent resources, they will be displayed in the form.

Press the "Yes" button to remove the resource from the model. Pressing the "No" button returns the browser to the view page.

Lock form

Press the toolbar icon to lock the resource from further modification. This will direct the browser to the Lock form. Press the "Lock" button to lock the object. After the object is locked the toolbar will be reconfigured. Notice the "Edit" button is no longer displayed and the lock icon has changed.

Press the toolbar icon to unlock the resource and reenable the toolbar for resource modification. Once the resource is unlocked, the toolbar will return to its normal configuration.

Tabbed views

The Resource view contains a tab bar allowing you to toggle between several sub views.

Pressing a tab button will change to that view.

Details tab

The Details tab provides the primary view to the resource. The Details tab contains information about the property values for the resource. If the resource has associated Attributes they will be displayed as well.

Child Resources

Child resource relationships can be viewed and modified in this area of the Details tab. The number of relationships is reflected in the link name. For example, if there are twelve child resources the link will read, "Child Resources (12)".

Viewing

Child Resources: list view

Press the Child Resources link to reveal the resource dependencies. If no child resource relationships exist, there will be a button labeled "+ add" otherwise it will be labeled "change...". Pressing the button will direct the browser to the Change/Add form.

There are two display styles, "tree" and "list". The tree display lists each resource along with disclosure icon. Pressing the disclosure icon allows you to navigate to that resource's child resources.

The "list" display organizes the child resources by their type.

Change/Add form

Pressing either the add or change button from the Child Resources link, directs the browser to a form that allows one to select or deselect child resource relationships. The form highlights existing child resources in yellow.

The behavior of this form is controlled by resource type's Constraints. Only resources that are of allowed types are included in the form. If only single instance allowed constraint is defined for a resource type, then the form will use a series of radio buttons to choose among those instances of that type.

Parent Referrers

Parent resource relationships can be viewed and modified in this area of the Details tab. The number of relationships is reflected in the link name. For example, if there are two parent resource relationships the link will read, "Parent Referrers (2)".

Viewing

Press the Parent Referrers link to reveal the parent resources. If no parent resource relationships exist, there will be a button labeled "+ add" otherwise it will be labeled "change...". Pressing the button will direct the browser to the Change/Add form.

Change/Add form

Pressing either the add or change button from the Parent Referrers link, directs the browser to a form that allows one to select or deselect parent resource relationships. The form highlights existing parent resources in yellow.

The behavior of this form is controlled by resource type's Constraints. Only resources that are of allowed types are included in the form. If a singleton constraint is defined for a resource type, then the form will use a series of radio buttons.

Documents

Resources can define transform documents which are used to generate text files from template files. The transformation process provides several choices of template types and data input formats.

The number of documents is reflected in the link name. For example, if there is one document defined, then the link will read, "Documents (1)".

Viewing

Pressing the Documents link will reveal the defined documents. A button labeled "+ add document" can be pressed to define a new document transform.

The parameters of each defined document is described with text and icons. A button bar to the right of it allows you to edit, view or remove the definition.

Detail view

Clicking a document name in the Documents list, brings you to the "Transform detail" page. On this page, one can view the transform definition, preview the document transformation, or view the input data representations. The detail view page is split into three tabs: Overview, Data View and Property View. The Overview tab displays a button bar where one can:

: edit the definition
: execute the transform. The image for this button changes based on the output file content type
: view the XML model representation

Property View

The "Data View" tab displays the resource model data in a graphical form that generates XPath expressions useful for those using the "simple" template type. Moving the mouse over the blue text, will produce a mouse tip with an XPath expression for that piece of data.

The "Property View" tab displays the resource model data as key/value pairs and useful for those writing Ant filter templates.

Add form

Pressing the "+ add document" button directs the browser to the Define New Transform form. Defining a new transform is done in two steps. The first step, has you choose parameters that control how much of the resource model is included as data context to the template. The "degree(s) away" popup menu specifies how many levels of relationships should be included. The set of radio buttons below, determine if child resources, parent resources or both should be included.

After pressing the "Continue..." button, the browser will be directed to step two of the definition. This form provides text fields where you specify information about the output file and template.

Choose a template

The form contains these fields:

Output file Name: Name of the file to write transform results
Output directory: Directory where output file should be written
Content type: Output file content type
Plain text: Unformatted text
HTML: An HTML document
XML: An XML document
Description: Description of the role or purpose of the document
Template: Template file to use. The template specified can be a path relative to the WebDAV or a file relative to the client. Click the icon to choose a template using a simple WebDAV browser.
Template type: Specifies what transformation process to use
Simple (xpath): A plain text template file that contains XPath expressions. Input is given as an XML file
XSLT: An XSL template. Input is given as an XML file
Ant filter: A plain text file processed by Ant filter expansion. Tokens are demarcated with "@" characters.

Edit form

Existing document definitions can be modified using the Document Edit form.

Make the desired changes and then press the "Save Changes" button.

Commands tab

The commands tab displays the commands defined by this resource's type. (See the Graphical type editor for an interface to define your own types and commands). The commands tab will also list the Nodes this command can run (specified as Node parent referrers). Each command is shown with its general usage, description and a set of icons. These icons link to other actions described below.

Command usage

Press the icon to display the command line usage for this command.

Press the "« Commands List" button to return to the list of all commands.

Run in Jobcenter

Press the icon to run the command in Jobcenter.

Process flow

Press the icon to display the process flow for this command.

Press the "« Commands List" button to return to the list of all commands.

Properties tab

The Properties tab displays the model for the resource in simple key/value form. Properties provide a flattened view about an resource's own information, as well as, information about related resources. Each resource within the view is transformed to a set of name/value pairs and provide data context to commands defined for this resource type.

The Properties tab includes a "Filter" text field that lets you filter the displayed properties through simple regular expression matching. The "Dependencies" and "Degrees away" parameters are command module settings defined in the resource's Type.

Graphical resource editor

From ControlTier

Contents

Login

Project

Home page

Top navigation bar

Search form

Type search

Object search

Type browser

Admin page

Navigation views

Menus

Node Manager

Node list

Node view

Package Manager

Package list

Package view

Builder list

Builder view

Service Manager

Service list

Service view

Site list

Site view

Process Manager

Updater list

Updater view

Resource View

Search Browse

Toolbar

Edit form

Copy form

Graph form

XML view

Remove form

Lock form

Tabbed views

Details tab

Child Resources

Viewing

Change/Add form

Parent Referrers

Viewing

Change/Add form

Documents

Viewing

Detail view

Add form

Edit form

Commands tab

Command usage

Run in Jobcenter

Process flow

Properties tab

See also

Views

Personal tools

site

Help

Communication

Development

Search

Toolbox

Print/export