Visual Configuration Explorer SDK (software development kit) is a toolkit that enables developers to create extensions for Visual Configuration Explorer that expand its set of supported middleware products.

Visual Configuration Explorer is an add-on tool for IBM® Support Assistant Workbench, Version 4.0.2. This tool displays the configuration information collected from various IBM software middleware products; these supported products include WebSphere® Application Server, WebSphere Portal, DB2®, WebSphere MQ, Tivoli® Directory Server, IBM HTTP Server, and Microsoft® Active Directory. A provider is a component within Visual Configuration Explorer that processes the topology configuration information of a particular middleware product and produces a set of topology objects, each with a set of properties, representing that configuration.

How does it work?

Customers use Visual Configuration Explorer to display, search, and compare the topology configuration information of their various middleware installations. This information is helpful in troubleshooting configuration problems and configuring products during installation. The Visual Configuration Explorer SDK allows such customers to enhance the tool to support additional middleware products used in their systems.

The toolkit provides a workbench that can be installed into an Eclipse 3.2.2 integrated development environment (IDE). Using this workbench, developers can write Visual Configuration Explorer providers in Java™, allowing the Visual Configuration Explorer SDK tool to support additional middleware products. Javadoc is provided for the Visual Configuration Explorer APIs that such a provider will use; likewise, Eclipse source code is provided to enable developers to better understand how to use Eclipse packages. Developers will be able to test their custom code by launching the IBM Support Assistant and its Visual Configuration Explorer tool add-on from the IDE.

The Visual Configuration Explorer SDK provides a modeling mechanism that the developer can use to define the topology objects for the middleware product in question. For each topology object, the developer specifies a name and its composition relationship with the other objects and can specify an image to represent the object in topology diagrams. After the model is defined, the SDK can generate the portion of the provider code related to that definition. After the provider shell code is generated, the developer simply writes the code that parses the prospective product's configuration data. The parsed output can then be used to populate the normalized topology model upon invocation. Additional functionality, such as aggregation and simple relationships, validation rules, and diagram templates, can be added to further enhance the functionality of the implementation.

Bob DeLima is a senior software engineer for the IBM Software Group Advanced Design and Technology group in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He is currently involved in advanced technology projects in the areas of high availability, provisioning, solution integration, and scenario-based software development. Mr. DeLima can be reached through e-mail.

Mike Gering is a senior software engineer for the IBM Software Group Advanced Design and Technology group in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He has been a professional programmer for over 30 years, witnessing the demise of punched cards and the ascendency of personal computing. Mr. Gering""s current interests include model-driven development and virtualization. He enjoys finding and making good hacks, in the traditional, benevolent sense of the word.

Gary Dudley is an advisory engineer for the IBM Software Group Advanced Design and Technology group in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He is currently working on the Visual Configuration Explorer project. Mr. Dudley can be reached through e-mail.