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 that 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 of 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 that you make help determine the content of your
published Web site. A configuration is given a name and then saved so that
it can be changed and 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.
- 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
are comprised of elements that are defined inside of these plug-ins and elements
that are defined in other plug-ins, then configurations will only consider
the elements that are within these plug-ins.
- 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, you can select custom or standard categories whose elements shall
be interpreted as part of the configuration. Step 2 required that all elements
that are physically stored within the same package are 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 Steps
1 to 3, you can select custom or standard categories whose elements will not
be part of the configuration. In other words, you 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:
- 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.