System Designer Terminology

In Visual Studio Team System Architecture Edition, you can design application systems by using System Designer. System Designer opens when you create a new System Design solution or when you create or add a system diagram to your solution.

A system diagram represents a single definition of an application system. You can design the system by adding endpoints, applications, or other systems to this system definition. You can then configure and evaluate the system for deployment. You can also reuse the system by adding it as a member to another system definition.

The Toolbox displays new systems or applications that you can add to a system definition as members. Visual Studio adds the definitions of these members to the corresponding diagrams in your solution. The Toolbox also displays new endpoints that you can add to the system definition or members of the system definition.

The System View window displays systems or applications that already exist in your solution. The definitions for these systems and applications appear on other diagrams in your solution. The members that you add to an application system are uses of these definitions.

You can define and represent behavior that your application system provides or consumes by adding endpoints to your system definition. You can then delegate this behavior to members of the system definition. You can also expose behavior of members outside of the system definition. Both actions add proxy endpoints to the system definition. You can also connect members to represent their communication pathways in the deployment environment. For more information, see Overview of System Designer.

The following illustrations show System Designer and a system diagram.

System Designer

System diagram

The following table introduces terminology associated with System Designer.

Term	Definition
System diagram	Describes the diagram you use to design an application system. Application systems consist of applications or other systems. The system diagram (.sd) file contains information based on the System Definition Model (SDM). For more information, see the following topics: Overview of the System Definition Model (SDM) Relationships Between System Definition Model (SDM) Documents
System definition	Describes the configuration of a particular application system. An application system consists of applications or other systems as members. A system definition describes the configuration, rules, and policies that apply to its members at deployment. For more information, see Overview of Application Systems.
Application (use)	Describes the use of an application definition as a member of a system definition. When you work in System Designer, you can view the settings and constraints that apply to the members of a system. Although you cannot edit these constraints from System Designer, you can override any settings that are designated as overridable on the underlying definition of an application. For more information, see Overview of System Designer.
System (use)	Describes the use of a system definition as a member of another system definition. For more information, see Overview of Application Systems.
System endpoint	Represents behavior that a system provides or consumes. It also represents a connection point for the system. System endpoints appear on the boundary of a system. You must eventually delegate behavior for these endpoints to a member of the system. For more information, see Delegation and Exposure of Application System Behavior.
Proxy endpoint	Represents behavior that a system provides or consumes. It also represents a connection point for the system. Proxy endpoints appear on the boundary of a system and expose member behavior outside the system definition. A proxy endpoint delegates system behavior to a member of the system. For more information, see Delegation and Exposure of Application System Behavior.
Connection	Represents how to configure application endpoints when you deploy an instance of the system. For more information, see Communication within Application Systems.
Delegation	Represents the delegation of system behavior from a proxy endpoint to an endpoint on a member of the system. For more information, see Delegation and Exposure of Application System Behavior.

See Also

Concepts

Overview of Distributed System Designers

Workflow Across Distributed System Designers

Distributed System Designers Terminology Overview

Reference

System View Window Terminology

Web Service Details Window Terminology

Settings and Constraints Editor Terminology