Installation and setup requirements

Each product installation includes the common component and the product's Rational® CM API subprovider. For example, the Rational ClearQuest® installation includes the ClearQuest CM API subprovider. The subprovider layer ensures that the CM API component infrastructure is installed. 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 regardless of whether all the 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. 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 that is already installed.

By default, the Rational CM API JAR file and the other required JAR files are installed in the following locations, where the variable RATIONAL_INSTALL represents the directory where the Rational product files are installed.

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 plug-in

You can create an Eclipse plug-in by using the files listed in the previous section and the files located in the \plugins\com.ibm.rational.stp.cmapi directory in the archive file %RATIONAL_INSTALL%\common\cm\teamapi.zip.

To add the Rational CM API plug-in to your runtime configuration, copy the files into your Eclipse instance or create a new extension installation site. This creates a new directory for the Rational CM API, for example, C:\eclipse\plug-ins\com.ibm.rational.stp.cmapi. The new plug-in comprises the Rational CM API JAR files and the product-specific (ClearCase and ClearQuest) JAR files. After creating the plug-in directory, you must copy each installed JAR file from its installed location to this new plug-in directory. Each subprovider JAR file requires the Rational CM API JAR file. The plug-in is available to 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 plug-in match the installed JAR files and use the newer JAR files.

You must identify com.ibm.rational.stp.cmapi as a dependency to use the Rational CM API from your plug-in . See http://help.eclipse.org/help30/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/firstplugin.htm for information about creating a plug-in.

You can also import the CM API plug-in 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 computer as the client program that is invoking Rational CM API.

The ClearCase subprovider supports Web views and remote access through the Change Management Server (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 computer (either to the client installation location or the plug-in directory), depending on how the Rational CM API is used.


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