Resources

The projects, folders and files that exist in the workbench are called resources. They are collectively referred to as the workspace and they reside in your local file system.

By default, resources reside (with their metadata) in the workspace directory. The workspace directory is created the first time that you start the Message Brokers Toolkit. On Windows, the default workspace directory is created at C:\Documents and Settings\user\IBM\wmbt6.0\workspace, and on Linux, the default workspace directory is created at /home/user/IBM/wmqi6.0/workspace, where user is the user name with which you are logged on. You can create projects in other directories as well as in the workspace directory. You can maintain multiple workspaces by specifying a new location when prompted while the Message Brokers Toolkit is starting.

Typically, you open and view for editing any workbench resource in the Broker Development view. The exception is a broker domain resource (also referred to as a domain object) which you view and open for editing in the Broker Administration Navigator view in the Broker Administration perspective.

The following figure shows a server project, a message flow project, and a message set project in the Broker Development view of the Broker Application Development perspective.

A screen capture of the Broker Development view in the Broker Application Development perspective

Types of resource

There are three basic types of resource:
Files
These are comparable to files in a file system. Different types of resource are maintained in different file types, for example, message flow files, and broker archive files. File types are listed in Resource types in the Message Brokers Toolkit.
Folders
These are comparable to directories in a file system. Folders are contained within projects or other folders. Folders can contain files and other folders.
Start of changeWhen you create resources, they are grouped together by file type in logical categories within the hierarchy, and placed in virtual folders. Within a Message Flow project, there can be up to six virtual folders containing groups of resources. These are:
Flows
This virtual folder is always shown after project creation, and contains .msgflow files, which are grouped by namespaces.
Enqueues
This virtual folder is shown only when it contains .enqueue files, which are grouped by namespaces.
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Projects
Projects contain folders and files. Projects are used for building, version management, sharing, and resource organization. Like folders, projects map to directories in a file system. When you create a project, you specify a location for it in the file system. By default, projects are created in the workspace directory..

A project is either open or closed. You can view and modify an open project in the workbench. You cannot view or modify the contents of a closed project. The files and folders of a closed project are not displayed in the workbench, but they still reside on the local file system.

Start of changeYou can filter closed projects so that they do not appear in the workbench, by selecting Filters from the view menu (shown by a down arrow) in the Broker Development view, and then clicking Closed Projects from the displayed list of resource filters.End of change

A closed project requires less memory than an open project.

You can:
  • Add a project to the workbench.
  • Save and version a project in an external repository.
  • Copy a project from another user's workbench.

Project types are listed in Resource types in the Message Brokers Toolkit.

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Working sets

A working set is a logical collection of application projects, that you can use to limit the number of resources that are displayed in the Broker Development view. Creating and using a working set allows you to reduce the visual complexity of what is displayed in the Broker Development view, making it easier to manage and work with your application projects.

The active working set is the current working set of application projects that you choose to display. Only the application projects contained in the active working set are displayed in the Broker Development view. If you do not create any working sets, the default active working set contains <all resources> and displays all of your application projects.

You can create a new working set in the Broker Development view and add existing application projects to it.

When you use the Broker Application Development perspective to create a new file or new project, the new file or project is automatically added to the current active working set. If there is no active working set, the new file or project is displayed under all resources in the Broker Development view but is not added to a working set.

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