Packaging custom UML profiles

After you create a custom UML profile and are ready to make it available to others, you must deploy it. One way to deploy a custom UML profile is to create a plug-in and package the profile in it. After you modify the plugin.xml file to include an extension point to your profile, you can install the plug-in and apply the profile to a model. If you want the profile to be listed as a deployed profile in the product, you should package it. Before you package a profile, you might want to release it to prevent any changes that could adversely affect models that have that profile.

Before you begin

Before you deploy your profile, you must validate the profile and resolve any errors. You must also be familiar with the plug-in creation process.

About this task

To package a custom UML profile:

Procedure

  1. Create a plug-in. When you create a plug-in, a folder is generated that contains a plugin.xml file.
  2. In the main directory of your plug-in, create a folder called profiles, for example.
  3. Close the UML Profile Editor.
  4. Place a copy of the EPX file in the profiles folder.
  5. To define a pathmap to the profiles folder and add the profile extension to the plugin.xml file, complete the following steps:
    1. Add org.eclipse.gmf.runtime.emf.core to the tags of the required plug-in.
    2. Add org.eclipse.gmf.runtime.emf.core.Pathmaps to the extension tags.
    3. Add com.ibm.xtools.uml.msl to the tags of the required plug-in.
    4. Add a pathmap to the extension tags that specifies the name of the folder, profiles, that you created in step 2, followed by the name of the EPX file. For example: path="pathmap://name_of_pathmap/name_of_profile (the EPX file)".
    5. Add com.ibm.xtools.uml.msl.UMLProfiles to the extension tags.

What to do next

For more information about parallel model development with custom profiles or best practices for releasing profiles, see the IBM® developerWorks® Web site. Specifically, see the article called "Comparing and merging UML models in IBM Rational® Software Architect, Part 6: Parallel model development with custom profiles." You can find this article by using the following search terms: "comparing and merging UML models" or "parallel model development with custom profiles." The "Authoring UML profiles using Rational Software Architect and Rational Software Modeler" found on the IBM developerWorks site may also be helpful.

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