The use or reuse of software assets can increase productivity, promote proven solutions and consistent architectures, reduce production costs, and save time by eliminating duplication of design efforts. The Object Management Group OMG®Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) documents a consistent and effective method for packaging a software solution and sharing it. This method forms the basis for a good asset-based development (ABD) strategy.
RAS assets
IBM Rational uses the Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) to provide a standard way to package and extract a set of related files. A RAS asset is a collection of related files or artifacts packaged based on the RAS specification.Tutorials and samples for importing and exporting RAS assets
The following tutorials and samples provide an introduction to importing and exporting RAS assets. See the Tutorials Gallery and Samples Gallery for more tutorials and samples.Working in the RAS perspective
Perspectives define the initial set and layout of views in the Workbench window. The RAS perspective is designed specifically for people working with reusable assets. It provides an editor area and the following views: Asset Explorer, Navigator, Outline, and Properties.Setting artifact descriptor preferences
The RAS artifact types are used by the RAS importer and the RAS exporter to specify information about a packaged artifact. The description for the artifact type appears in the manifest file for the RAS asset. All previously registered extensions are listed in alphabetical order.Managing RAS assets
IBM Rational provides a standard for interchange of and access to RAS assets. Repositories provide a way to organize and manage assets so they can be exchanged between developers and coworkers. Once you add a repository to your repository list, you can view, search, inspect, and import the assets in that repository.Importing RAS assets
Importing a RAS asset is the process of unpacking and restoring the files to a local file or folder or to your workspace.Downloading RAS assets
Downloading an asset is different from importing because downloading copies the asset archive (.ras) file from a repository to a specified directory on your local file system. In contrast, importing the asset unpacks the asset artifacts and places them in your workspace. If you only want one part of the asset, you should download instead of importing.Exporting to create RAS assets
You can export an RAS asset to share files for many different purposes.Documenting RAS assets
Add custom, narrative, or instructional documentation that will appear in the RAS asset manifest file that will be used when a consumer is searching for a specific type of asset.RAS asset icons
The following RAS asset icons are available from the various windows and views in the Rational modeling products.
Related concepts
RAS assets
Related reference
RAS asset icons