About Repository-Based Deployment

In repository-based deployment, you use the Asset Build Environment to build the assets from your development environment or version control system (VCS) into composites and store them in a repository. The repository is a specific directory structure to which you map Deployer. Deployer deploys the assets contained in the repository to target servers, target groups, or both.

You can use repository-based deployment to deploy assets for the following webMethods run-time components to target servers:

To build composites for deployment, you must first install the webMethods Asset Build Environment. The Asset Build Environment supplies the scripts necessary to build assets into composites that Deployer then deploys to target servers and groups. For testing purposes, you can install the Asset Build Environment on the machine that you use to create assets in the development environment. For daily or continuous builds, you should install the Asset Build Environment on a separate build machine that you use to build the assets into composite files that Deployer can deploy to target servers. For information about installing the Asset Build Environment, see Installing Software AG Products.

After installing the Asset Build Environment, you can locate the scripts and properties files for the Asset Build Environment in the following directory:

Software AG_directory \common\AssetBuildEnvironment\master_build

build.properties Contains the settings that the build script uses to build the assets. You must set the properties for the build before running the build script.

build-number.xml The build script uses this file to automatically version the assets included in the build incrementally. You can set a custom build number in this file (for example, to match the build number to the VCS revision number).

build-source-checkout.xml If the build source directory is a version control system, you can use this file as a template to create an Ant task that checks out sources from a version control system (VCS).

When you upgrade the Asset Build Environment to a higher release version using the overinstall installation method, any changes you made to these files are retained. You should move the files only when you uninstall and then create a new installation of the Asset Build Environment.

Composites are compressed files that contain the definitions of the assets you created in a development environment and their dependencies. Each composite defines assets from one webMethods run-time component. You build the assets into the composite file during the build process and store them in a repository for deployment.

Deployer can use the assets from several different composites (and webMethods run-time components) to construct a deployment set. The assets in each composite file retain the same relationships they share in the development environment.

The build process that creates the composites for your assets also creates an Asset Composite Definition Language descriptor ( ACDL descriptor) for each composite. The ACDL descriptor is an XML schema that serves as a manifest for each composite and describes all of the assets included in the composite file. Deployer reads the descriptor to determine which assets are present in each composite.