Managing properties using the Property Dictionary

The Property Dictionary is a master list of all properties that can be assigned to system objects.

The Property Dictionary organizes properties into classes and subclasses. Each class inherits the properties defined for the root system object in the Property Dictionary. Each subclass inherits all properties defined for its parent class.

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The Property Dictionary presents users with two types of property classes: built-in and custom.

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Both built-in and custom property classes are hierarchical collections of classes and subclasses. Built-in property classes are the same for all BMC Server Automation installations. The define the standard properties for the objects you interact with in the server automation system. Custom property classes are user-defined and have multiple applications.

In general, all roles can read the Property Dictionary; no special permissions are required to view it. However, to view instances of custom property classes, your role must have, at minimum, a PropertyInstance.Read authorization. For information about granting authorizations to roles, see Creating roles.

The Property Dictionary lets you perform the following procedures:

Tasks related to properties

Description

Create hierarchical custom property classes and subclasses

Use BMC Server Automation to create hierarchical custom property classes and subclasses.
You can assign properties to each custom class and subclass. A subclass inherits all the properties of its parent class. Using inheritance, you can create complex property sets built from custom classes and subclasses. Then, you can create multiple instances of these property sets. For each instance, you can set individual properties to particular values.

Add a new property to a built-in class or modify an existing property

Use BMC Server Automation to add a new property to a built-in class or modify an existing property. Built-in property classes are associated with types of system objects.
For example, all properties in the Jobs class are automatically associated with each job in the system. If you add a new property to the Jobs built-in class, it is automatically associated with all jobs. Similarly, all properties in the Network Shell Script Jobs subclass are automatically associated with all Network Shell Script Jobs.
Note that many of the properties in the Network Shell Script Jobs subclass — and all job subclasses — are inherited from the Jobs class.
See Adding-or-modifying-properties and Removing or deprecating a property, custom property class, or instance.

Associate a custom property class with a system object

To explicitly associate a custom property class with a system object, you must create a property class property, which is a particular type of property that references another property class or subclass (either custom or built-in).
The values that you can assign for a property class property are the instances that have been defined for the referenced property class. For an extended example illustrating the use of custom property classes, instances, and property class properties, see Custom-property-class-description.

 

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