A method configuration is a selection of method plug-ins and method packages
in a method library.
A method configuration defines a working set of packages within the method
library that limits your view to a subset of the library. Elements which comprise
the selected configuration are displayed in the configuration
view. Method configurations are used for creating processes and for
publication by defining which elements are published in HTML and which are
not.
A method configuration consists of these components:
- A description of the configuration.
- A selection from the set of plug-ins and packages which elements are defined
to be part of the configuration.
- A selection of categories of which categorized elements are added to the
set of elements of the configuration in addition to the elements of the selected
plug-ins and packages.
- A selection of categories of which categorized elements are subtracted
from the set of elements of the configuration defined earlier.
- A selection of views to be published in the web site.
In a method configuration, you are able to select and deselect content
packages, process, and categories available in the method library's set of
plug-ins. The selections you make help determine the content of your published
web site. A configuration is given a name and then saved so it can be changed
and then republished at a later date.
Before creating a method configuration, assess your needs and
goals for the configuration.
There are two ways to create a method
configuration:
- Create a new method configuration from scratch.
- Create a method configuration by copying an existing configuration.
Configurations can be created by selecting plug-ins and packages and
then adding or subtracting specific elements in content categories. This provides
a way to remove whole groups of elements such as all work products in a specific
domain, or all tasks in a specific discipline.
Configurations will be
specified in the following four-step procedure:
- Select the plug-ins to be considered for the configuration definition.
All additional selections in the following Steps 2 to 4 must be included
in these plug-ins only. If categories will be selected in Steps 3 and 4 that
comprise of elements that are defined inside of these plug-ins as well as
elements that are defined in other plug-ins then configurations will only
consider the elements that are within these plug-in.
- Select physical packages to be included in the configuration definition.
As a refinement to the method plug-in selection the specific method packages
determine which packages should be included into the interpretation of the
configuration. For a selected package, every element directly residing inside
that package shall be interpreted as part of the configuration.
- Select logical categories to be added to the configuration definition.
As an additional refinement to the category definition created with Steps
1 and 2, one can select custom and/or standard categories which elements shall
be interpreted as part of the configuration as well. Whereas Step 2 required
that all elements that are physically stored within the same package shall
be part of the configuration, this steps allows adding individual elements
grouped into a logical category to a configuration.
- Select logical categories to be subtracted from the configuration definition.
As an additional refinement to the category definition created with Step
1 to 3, one can select custom and/or standard categories which elements shall
not be part of the configuration. In other words, one can subtract sets of
individual elements from a configuration by grouping them into a category
and listing this category in this step.
Advantages of this approach include the following:
- Increased flexibility in selecting complete packages.
- Ability to remove individual elements from a configuration.
- Ability to remove whole categories from a configuration in a single operation.