Creating the schema development environment

In the schema development environment, you first populate the values of some of the mandatory settings for deploying i2 Analyze. After you deploy i2 Analyze for the first time, you can then develop the schemas to meet your requirements.

Before you begin

The easiest approach is to use the containerized configuration development environment as your schema development environment and configuration development environment. The containerized environment provides functionality that makes it easier to develop your i2 Analyze configuration, including:

No requirement to install a database management system locally
Improved experience for editing configuration files
A simplified deployment process

After you develop your configuration in the containerized development environment, you can export your configuration to use with your on-premise deployment toolkit in the pre-production, test, and production environments.

If you do not want to use the containerized environment, continue to complete the following instructions.

About this task

Depending on the terms of your license and the needs of your organization, a deployment of i2 Analyze might include the Chart Store alone, or the Information Store alone, or the i2 Connect gateway. The i2 Connect gateway can itself appear alone, or in combination with the Chart Store or the Information Store.

If your target deployment includes only the Chart Store, then you do not need to create a schema development environment. Instead, you can go directly to the configuration development environment.
If your target deployment does not include the Information Store but does include the i2 Connect gateway, then the schema development environment is a convenient place to develop a gateway schema. If you do not intend to use a gateway schema, the environment still provides support for prototyping a security schema.
If your target deployment includes the Information Store, then you must complete the steps in this and subsequent topics to develop the schema that will become your Information Store schema.

The schema development environment features an instance of i2 Analyze with the i2 Connect gateway; there is no Information Store or Chart Store. By using a deployment without a database, you can quickly prototype changes to the schema and the security schema, and then visualize the changes in Analyst's Notebook.

Procedure

Install any prerequisite software to prepare your server for the schema development environment.
- For the schema development environment, prepare your server for the i2 Connect deployment topology.
- Install Analyst's Notebook to connect to your deployment and i2 Analyze Schema Designer to edit your schema files. For more information, see Installing i2 Analyst's Notebook and Working with i2 Analyze.
In the deployment toolkit that you installed, copy the toolkit\examples\configurations\daod-opal\configuration directory to the toolkit directory.
Enter a user name and password to use with the Solr index and a password to encrypt the LTPA tokens in the configuration\environment\credentials.properties file. For more information about credentials in i2 Analyze, see Specifying the deployment credentials.
In a command prompt, navigate to the toolkit\scripts directory, and run the following command to populate some mandatory settings with default values:
```
setup -t generateDefaults
```
The environment.properties and topology.xml are modified by this toolkit task. For more information about the default values that are provided, see Configuration files reference.
In i2 Analyze Schema Designer, either create a new schema or open one of the examples to modify.
For information about creating or modifying schema files, see Creating schemas and Charting schemes.
Example schema files are located in subdirectories of the toolkit\examples\ directory. For more information, see Example schemas.
Note: If your planned deployment does not include the Information Store and you do not intend to use a gateway schema, your choice of example here is not important. You just need to set up a valid development environment.
1. Save the initial version of your schema in the configuration\fragments\common\WEB-INF\classes directory. A charting scheme file is saved in the same location when you save the schema.
2. Keep the schema file open in Schema Designer so that you can make more modifications after you deploy i2 Analyze.
Copy the example security schema to the configuration\fragments\common\WEB-INF\classes directory. The example security schema file is located in the toolkit\configuration\examples\security-schema directory. For more information, see Example schemas.
In the configuration\fragments\common\WEB-INF\classes\ApolloServerSettingsMandatory.properties file, set the values of the following settings to the file names of your schema, charting scheme, and security schema:
- Gateway.External.SchemaResource
- Gateway.External.ChartingSchemesResource
- DynamicSecuritySchemaResource
For example, Gateway.External.SchemaResource=custom-schema.xml
Deploy i2 Analyze:
```
setup -t deploy
```
Create an example user that you can use to log in:
```
setup -t ensureExampleUserRegistry
```
The user has the user name 'Jenny' and the password 'Jenny'.
Start i2 Analyze:
```
setup -t startLiberty
```
When you start i2 Analyze, the URI that you can use to connect to it from Analyst's Notebook is displayed in the console. For example: Web application available (default_host): http://host_name:9082/opaldaod
Connect to your deployment by using Analyst's Notebook. Log in with the example 'Jenny' user.
In Analyst's Notebook, create items on the chart to visualize the i2 Analyze schema by using the Gateway palette.

What to do next

After you deploy i2 Analyze with the initial schema files, you can develop them for your own data requirements:

After you develop your schema files, you move to the configuration development environment. In the configuration development environment, you deploy i2 Analyze with the schemas that you developed in your schema development environment.

You can choose whether to retain your schema development environment. If you need to make small changes to your schemas later, you can do this in your configuration development environment. If you need to make more substantial changes, you might create another schema development environment.

When you have finalized your schemas, you can move to the next environment. For more information, see Configuration development environment.