Access Rules

TheAccess Rules option allows jar files within an Eclipse project .classpath to define an access level for packages and classes. There are three different levels of access: non-accessible, discouraged and accessible. When the compiler within Eclipse detects access to a type that should not be accessed, it will create a problem marker rather than compile failure:

Non-accessible rules define types that must not be referenced. The compiler typically creates an error marker for accesses to these types;
Discouraged rules define types that should not be referenced. The compiler typically creates a warning marker for accesses to these types;
Accessible rules define types that can be referenced.

Access rules are applied and provided rules for a number of the jar files in the .classpath files of the Eclipse projects. These access rules complement each jar file's API and through theaccessible rule indicate access that is compliant¹as per the Cúram Development Compliancy Guide. Classes defined asnon-accessible ordiscouraged are not supported for usage and are subject to change without notice and may not respect their API; hence they can impact the ability to easily integrate IBM Cúram Social Program Management upgrades.

Note: A large number of discouraged accesses exist in the out of the box Social Program Management Platform that may have been copied into your codebase as part of sub-classing or extension work. In a future release it is expected that these accesses will be removed and appropriate alternative APIs provided where none currently exist. In order to reduce future impact to your codebase, in regard access to discouraged code, you should treat these accesses as non-accessible and work to seek an alternate API.

¹ Access Rules can only be applied to jar files so should not be treated as a complete solution to police compliancy.