Tool Mentor: Publish Process Configuration Using RUP Builder

Purpose

RUP Builder allows you to publish a configuration of RUP that you've created to any drive available to you. This enables you to share the common process that you have agreed on with your team.

This tool mentor assumes that you have described your configuration, selected the process components pertinent to it, created the process views most useful for the configuration and selected the Publish Process panel in RUP Builder.

This section provides links to additional information related to this tool mentor.

• Tailor the Process for the Project
• Launch Development Process

Overview

The following steps are performed in this tool mentor:

• Select Publication Location
• Select Process Views to Publish
• Select Graphics Processing Options
• Select Post Publishing Options
• Publish the Configuration
• Inform the Team
• Save Your Process Configuration
• More Information

Select Publication Location 

In the Publish Location field, enter the location that you'd like to publish your configuration of RUP to.  You can also use the browse button to select a location.  For trouble-shooting while you are developing the configuration, you could choose to publish to your local hard drive, but it is expected that you will publish to a drive accessible to the entire team that will use the RUP configuration.

Select Process Views to Publish

You've already reviewed and possibly updated the various process views in your configuration.  You don't, however, have to include all of them in your published web-site.  The first tab in the publication panel contains a process view selection list and a matching radio-button selection of the default.  By default, all process views are selected for publication.  De-select those that you don't want to have visible in the published site.  From the ones that you will publish, select the one that you would like to appear as the default visible view in the published site.

Note that if a user has hidden all but one of the process views in their tree control, this will be their default when they start RUP.

Select Graphics Processing Options

By default, RUP Builder generates customized tabular views of the process you have chosen that mimic as closely as possible the graphics in Classic RUP.  This enables you to make process selections and have them show up in all aspects of the published RUP site.  You may choose to publish using the existing RUP graphics as well.  This isn't recommended as they won't include any of your custom choices.

There is one case in which publishing anything but the basic Classic RUP with existing graphics is useful:  your organization has created an organizational process plug-in that replaces the existing graphics with ones appropriate to the configuration in question.  In this case, you should receive clear guidance from your organizational process group on this.

Select Post Publishing Options

By default, RUP Builder regenerates the keyword and search indices used by RUP Browser.  You must do this to have fully valid indices for your final publication. It can save a few minutes every time you publish a RUP configuration to not generate them.  This is useful when you are developing and testing a RUP configuration. If you choose not to generate them, default indices are put in place, but they will be inaccurate in greater or lesser ways.

Publish the Configuration

Click on the Publish icon at the bottom of the panel. The publication process deletes all files in a folder before publication, but prompts you if you wish to do so.  

If you selected the 'Show Error Log' option in the Advanced panel, a dialog will appear with various publication errors.  This will be most meaningful to people testing newly created plug-ins, not people configuring processes.

A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the panel.  It will go through twice, once for publication and once for post-publishing options (see above).

When it's finished you will be prompted to see if you would like to review the newly published web-site.

Inform the Team

When you are satisfied with the RUP configuration that you have published, provide the URL to all members of the team or organization that need to have access to it.

Save Your Process Configuration

After making a series of changes, its a good idea to save your selections to a custom configuration for your project if you have not already done so.  That way, the next time you update your process configuration, you can start from the same place you left off, and iterate your process and its views most effectively.

For More Information 

For additional information on configuring and deploying RUP in an organization, see the Process Engineering Process (PEP). The PEP is a RUP-like process that provides guidance in the area of process engineering. It is included with the Rational Process Workbench™, available for download from the Rational Developer Network^SM.

Rational Unified Process