Summary: This section provides information about how to auto-distribute specific CAST AIP configuration files your own custom extension. Note this section contains advanced technical information and is only to be used by experienced CAST administrators.
Introduction
When creating a custom extension, whether using the CAST AIP Extension SDK or with the Universal Analyzer framework, it is possible (since CAST AIP 8.3.3) to auto distribute specific CAST AIP configuration files with the extension. These configuration files will be automatically installed when the extension is installed and will be taken into account when required.
At the current time, the following CAST AIP configuration files can be distributed with an extension:
| File type | Description |
|---|---|
| *.tccsetup | .tccsetup files are used by the CAST Transaction Configuration Center and contain configuration parameters to automatically define Entry Points, Data Entities, End points and Excluded Items. After installation, the configuration defined in the file will be available in the CAST Transaction Configuration Center. |
| *.aex | .aex files are used by the CAST Management Studio and contain configuration parameters for custom Environment Profiles. After installation, the custom Environment Profile defined in the file will be available to be used in analyses. |
| *.blackbox.xml | .blackbox.xml files contain configuration parameters for the User Input Security feature for the .NET and JEE technologies. After installation, the file will be loaded and taken into account by the "dataflow runner" during the analysis. |
Including the files in an extension
The configuration files should be located in the following locations within the custom extension file hierarchy:
| File type | Description |
|---|---|
| *.tccsetup | <root_extension_folder>/configuration/TCC |
| *.aex | <root_extension_folder>/configuration/EnvProfs |
| *.blackbox.xml | <root_extension_folder>/configuration/blackboxes |
Ensuring the configuration files are taken into account
To ensure that these configuration files are correctly installed, the custom extension itself must be installed with the "Manage Extensions" option in CAST Server Manager, as described in Install an extension. In order for a custom extension to be recognised by the "Manage Extensions" option in CAST Server Manager certain other files need to be present in the extension:
- Metamodel file or Mav2 configuration
- Pck file
- mda file
- Python file
Therefore:
- If you are creating a full blown "analyzer" then these files should aleady be present and your configuration files will be taken into account.
- If you are creating an extension simply to distribute and share the configuration files (see Creating a custom extension to share an add-on to CAST AIP) and you are therefore not creating an entire custom analyzer, then you need to ensure that one of the file types listed above is present in the extension (CAST recommends including a .py Python file to force CAST Server Manager to recognise the custom extension).
