Integrating with IBM Jazz servers

You can create links between artifacts on Jazz™ servers and assets in IBM® Rational® Asset Manager. For example, you could create a defect in IBM Rational Team Concert about an asset, and then create a link between the asset and the work item. The General Details page of the asset will contain a direct link to that work item, and the work item will contain a link to the asset. Or, you can create a forum topic and people can post links to defects or create requests for enhancements.

You can also create an integration by adding an OpenSocial gadget or iWidget in one application that retrieves information from the other application (such as adding a gadget that lists asset information to a dashboard). See Configuring cross-server communication.

To create links between assets and work items, complete the following tasks:

Set all servers to the same current date, time, and time zone

Have your server administrators verify that all of your servers for Rational Asset Manager and the Jazz server applications are set the same date, time, and time zone.

If the times for the servers vary by more than a few minutes, the requests for information from the Jazz server can fail.

Configure cookies on WebSphere Application Server

If the Jazz server and Rational Asset Manager are running on different application servers, configure the cookie settings so that the session ID is not overwritten. For more information, see Configuring cookie settings on WebSphere Application Server.

Add the Jazz server as an OAuth friend server

A repository administrator must add a Jazz server as a friend server so that it can communicate with Rational Asset Manager. For more information, see Adding Jazz servers as friend servers.

Note: In earlier versions of Rational Asset Manager, community administrators configured connections to Jazz servers for every community. Now, a repository administrator configures the connection, but all communities will be able to use that connection.

Create links to work items in forum topics and posts

After you have configured the connection, you can add links to work items through topics and posts in forums on the repository. For more information on creating forums and sharing them across assets, see Creating asset forums and Sharing forums. For forums that are linked to assets, you can optionally configure limits so users can, for example, only create an enhancement from a particular project area from a forum.

To create discussion topics and posts, see Creating discussion topics in forums and Creating discussion posts in forums

Create asset attributes of the Resource type

To add links to work items on the general details page of an asset, a repository administrator must create an asset attribute that is of the Resource type. For more information, see Defining custom asset attributes.

Create or modify asset types to use the Resource attribute type

After you have created an asset attribute of the resource type, you must create or modify an asset type and assign the resource attribute as a constraint. To create new repository asset types, see Defining asset types; to create or modify asset types for a specific community, see Creating community asset types.

Create or modify assets to add links to work items on the Jazz server

After you have configured the connection to the Jazz server and configured an asset type to use a resource attribute, you can create or modify an asset to create links to work items on the Jazz server. Depending on your permissions on the Jazz server, you will be able to create new resources or add links to existing resources on the Jazz server. See Linking to a work item on a Jazz server from an asset in the web client and in the Eclipse client.