Method content provides step-by-step explanations describing how specific development goals are achieved independent of the placement of these steps within a development lifecycle. Method content is always separated from its application in processes.
There are 4 main types of method content elements:
A Process Engineer will typically author these elements, categorize them, and define the relationships between them.
Processes take these method elements and relate them into semi-ordered sequences that are customized to specific types of projects.
Composer supports the concept of method plug-ins which allows the extension or customization of base library content without directly changing that base content. The base method content included with Composer is protected from direct modification. The OpenUp Basic plugins are grayed out in the library view indicating that they are locked.
Note:
You should always create new content in a method plug-in that you produce. This separates your content from the original content and allows you to update your own library with new releases of the OpenUp Basic library without affecting the content that you have created in your own plug-ins.
In this tutorial you will use several editors. Each editor opens in its own tab in the content display section of the screen. It is good practice to close an editor when you have finished with it. This ensures that you save any changes you make.
If you have several editors open, you may want to turn on the Link with Editor feature by clicking on the Link with Editor button in the Library view toolbar. If this is selected, when you switch between editors the element in the current editor is highlighted in the library view.
Method and process elements use two names: name and presentation name.
The name field is used as the file name for the item. It's a good practice to use file names that are all lower case with no spaces and no special characters. We do this so that the name is a valid on all operating systems and for integration with version control software. The name is shown in the library view.
The presentation name is the name that is shown on published pages and in the Configuration View. This name can contain any upper-case characters, spaces, and special symbols such as the trade mark character.
In the library view you can choose to display names or presentation names. You can switch the name display using the Show Presentation Names button in the library view toolbar.