Installation and setup requirements

Each individual product installation includes the common component and the product's Rational® CM API subprovider. For example, the Rational ClearQuest® product installation includes the Rational ClearQuest CM API subprovider. The subprovider layer ensures that the CM API component infrastructure is installed. Thus, depending on the combination of products installed, systems can have all or a subset of the following JAR files:

The Rational CM API infrastructure is designed to function whether or not all subproviders are present. The provider interface allows subprovider JAR files to be at different release levels.

The Rational CM API component has a multipart version number associated with it. Installing one subprovider overwrites the infrastructure component installed by a previous version of the subprovider, but only if the infrastructure component is a newer version than the one already installed.

The Rational CM API JAR file and other required JAR files are installed by default in the following locations. The variable <install-dir> represents the directory into which the Rational product files have been installed. By default, this directory is /opt/rational on the UNIX® system and Linux® and C:\Program Files\IBM Rational on Windows® systems.

To use the Rational CM API JAR files, you must add all their locations to your class path.

Accessing the Rational CM API from an Eclipse plugin

You can create an Eclipse plugin using the files packaged in the file <install-dir>\common\com.ibm.rational.stp.teamapi.zip and other installed files (listed in the previous section) to support Rational CM API access from other plugins in an Eclipse runtime environment. This zip file includes code samples, including the examples that the CM API tutorials describe.

To add the Rational CM API plugin to your runtime configuration you can copy the plugin into your Eclipse instance or create a new extension install site. This creates a new directory for the Rational CM API (for example, C:\eclipse\plug-ins\com.ibm.rational.stp.teamapi). This new plugin is a simple self-contained Eclipse plugin consisting of the Rational CM API JAR files plus the product-specific (ClearCase and ClearQuest) JAR files. Note that the .zip file also contains the actual product JAR files. After you create the plugin directory, you must copy each installed JAR file from its installed location to this new plugin directory. Each subprovider JAR file requires the Rational CM API JAR file. The plugin is available for use the next time that you start Eclipse. Note that if you install a newer product version or a patch, you must verify that the JAR files in the plugin match the installed JAR files and use the newer JAR files.

To use the Rational CM API from your plugin you must identify com.ibm.rational.stp.teamapi as a dependency. For information about creating a plugin, go to http://help.eclipse.org/help30/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/firstplugin.htm.

You can also import the CM API plugin into Eclipse as a project.

You must have a licensed and installed version of a Rational product to use the Rational CM API subprovider for that product. If you install the subprovider JAR files but do not have the corresponding product installed, calls to that Java™ package fail.

Accessing the Rational CM API from a Java client application

For a client application to make requests to the Rational ClearQuest subprovider, the Rational ClearQuest product must be installed on the same machine as the client program that is invoking Rational CM API.

The ClearCase subprovider supports Web views and remote access through the Rational ClearCase CM Server. The current version of Rational CM API does not support dynamic or snapshot views. The appropriate JAR files must be copied from the CM Server to the client machine, either to the client install location or to the plugin directory, depending on how the Rational CM API is being used.


Feedback