What is a composite intent type?

Composite intent type

A composite intent type is an intent type that encompasses multiple child intent types.

An intent type that is a child of a composite intent type can be managed on its own, or included in multiple composite intent types.

Combining several intent types into a composite intent type allows you to perform operations on the child intent types collectively. For example, you could use a composite intent type for managing several services as an end-to-end service: creating an intent from the composite intent type can configure all three services at once, and you can audit or sync the intent to monitor and maintain configuration on the end-to-end service as a whole.

A composite intent type has the same required components as other intent types, with the addition of an XML mapping file. The mapping file provides information about how to apply the parameters from the composite intent to the child intents. For example, the composite intent type may have a parameter called Service 2 Name. The mapping file tells NSP to apply the value of Service 2 name to the Service Name parameter of a specified child intent.

When the user creates an intent for the composite intent type, the user configures the parameters in the composite. NSP creates intents for the child intent types, passing the user inputs to the child intents as specified in the mapping file. You can configure dependency to the intents, for example, child 2 requires child 1. With this configuration, NSP creates the intent for child intent type 1 first, then creates the intent for child intent type 2.

If no order is configured, all the intents are created at the same time.

The following restrictions apply:

• The intent types that you want to add as child intent types must be created before the composite intent type.

• Composite parameters cannot be changed in edit mode. You can edit a composite intent to change the name, for example, but not to change the list of child intents or change child intent dependency.

  If you need to change composite parameters, delete the composite intent type.