9.2 Configurable components

9.2.1 General pattern

Subclause 9.2 defines a generic pattern to expose and configure components. It defines the following principles:

• A configurable Object shall contain a folder called SupportedTypes that references the list of Types available for configuring components using Organizes References. Sub-folders can be used for further structuring of the set. The names of these sub-folders are vendor specific.

• The configured instances shall be components of the configurable Object.

Figure 56 illustrates these principles.

In some cases the SupportedTypes folder on the instance can be different to the one on the Type and can contain only a subset. It can be for example that only one instance of each Type can be configured. In this case the list of supported Types will shrink with each configured component.

9.2.2 ConfigurableObjectType

This ObjectType implements the configurable component pattern and is used when an Object or an instance declaration requires nothing but configuration capability. Figure 57 illustrates the ConfigurableObjectType. It is formally defined in Table 142. Concrete examples are in clauses 9.3 and 9.4.

The SupportedTypes folder is used to maintain the set of (subtypes of) BaseObjectTypes that can be instantiated in this configurable Object (the course of action to instantiate components is outside the scope of this specification).

The configured instances shall be components of the ConfigurableObject.