Rational CM API clients

The Rational® CM API defines a client/server processing model, in which the client makes explicit requests to a server to obtain information about resources on the server and to make changes to these resources. The client uses proxy objects to marshal data to and from the server through the Rational CM API. Each proxy class defined in the Rational CM API maps to a specific type of product resource on the server.

By defining proxies that map to Rational product resources, this client/server programming model helps distinguish client-side processing and server-side processing. There is a well-defined naming convention for all methods to help identify methods that make calls to a server. For example, to read data from a product, a client application must first make an explicit request for the object or data to be read from the server and into a proxy before the value can be read from the proxy. Clients must call a do method (for example, Resource.doReadProperties) to request that specified values be read from a product server resource. The client application specifies the properties to be read (or written) by creating the appropriate proxy type that contains the names for each property to be read or written.

You can create client applications to read, modify, create, and delete data from any product that has a Rational CM API subprovider. The Rational CM API provides the interfaces to perform product-specific operations available in Rational software products.

A client application can be an integration between an existing application and Rational products, or a tool or utility that performs operations on data in Rational product repositories. With the Rational CM API, client applications have access to data in Rational products through the Rational CM API subproviders.

For example, if users have an application to access and work on some set of source files in ClearCase® or records in a ClearQuest® user database, the CM API can be used to create an integration between the existing application and the Rational product involved. If the files that users are updating are under source control, the integration can enable users to check out and check in their files from their application. The Rational CM API can be used to both perform source file updates and associate the update with a change request record.

The Rational CM API provides developers of client applications with these capabilities:

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