Identifying the Resources (Magic xpi 4.5)

The Resources settings define the external systems that Magic xpi needs to access during project execution.

The purposes of the Settings dialog box's Resources section are:

• To provide a single place to configure external resources. An external resource, such as Email settings, can be used in different areas within the project. Instead of defining the settings in each instance in which it is used, the Resources section enables a single location to configure the resource.

• To provide the capability of configuring the resources outside the project. When implementers work on a project, there is often a development environment in which they do all of their testing until they deploy their work into the real world. To be able to configure the resource externally makes the transition from the development environment to the deployment environment smoother. This is advantageous as no change is made to the project itself, but only to the configuration.

• To provide the capability of reusing previously defined configuration settings. Often when working on multiple projects, there are many resources that will be used continuously, such as Email settings. Instead of redefining these settings for each project every time, it will be easier to reuse the previously defined settings and simply make the specific changes for this project.

Magic xpi provides various out-of-the-box resource types, such as Messaging capabilities for MSMQ, WebSphere and JMS, and Web Services. In addition to these predefined resource types, users can define additional resource types using the Connector Builder.

Every component accessing an external resource, such as Email or MSMQ, must include a Resource definition based on the appropriate resource type. The components do not save their settings internally, but rather point to a resource in the Resources.