Types of RAS asset profiles

RAS asset profiles allow you to create different types of assets. Each RAS asset must have a profile associated with it, as specified in the RAS manifest file. RAS asset profiles allow you to create different types of assets.

When creating assets, you can select one of the following four supported RAS profile types:

The Default Web Service, Default Component, and Patterns profiles are specialized profiles that extend the original contents of the default profile. The purpose of different profiles is to maintain the consistency of information available for the consumer when searching and selecting assets for different purposes. When you are exporting the asset, you specify all of the profile information. Specialized profiles may automatically package artifacts required to support the asset’s purpose. To comply with the standards in the Reusable Asset Specification, the Default Web Services and the Default Component profiles extend and preserve the Default profile.

The RAS profile schema

The XML schema defines the organization of the XML document, which serves as the asset's manifest or table of contents.

The RAS manifest file

The product of the RAS schema is the manifest file. All RAS asset manifest files must be named with an extension of .rmd (RAS manifest document).

The RAS asset producer provides information about the asset during the export sequence that creates the asset. The RAS manifest file is used to invoke the appropriate profile prompts during the RAS export and to store the RAS asset producer's input. When an RAS asset is imported, this file is read to unpack and restore the asset files in the appropriate locations.

The manifest file includes the following five sections:

RAS compliance

An asset is RAS compliant if it maintains its integrity with the Reusable Asset Specification. Essentially, compliance refers to maintaining the structure and content of the manifest file and maintaining the required RAS files. Altering the contents of the Default profile XML schema without properly extending the profile or deleting parts of the manifest file that do not comply with the respective schema can make an asset noncompliant.

Parent topic: RAS assets

Related tasks
Managing RAS assets

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