tc-driver.xml and device driver properties

Where to start. How about a description. What is "tc-driver.xml"?

The tc-driver.xml file is a manifest file for an automation package. It contains the name and the version number of the automation package and the version number of the automation package template, and describes all of the device driver dependencies on other automation packages.

Read more about it at: Setting up the manifest file

In addition to any helpful information you find at the link above, you can also have the manifest file set dcm properties when it is imported. You may or may not know that you can have variables associated against device drivers. I find that these variables can be better stored here rather then as global variables (that is, if the variable is not needed globally). When you update a tcdriver it will remove all of the variables loaded against the device drivers that it is updating. Most companies implement this product to facilitate some sort of automation ... so, unless you want to manually re-add the variable(s) every time, you can try the following within the <device-model></device-model> stanza:

<dcm-property component="DEPLOYMENT ENGINE" name="your variable name" value="the value" />

Now, each and every time your automation package is updated, the variable with name "your variable name" will be available by DCMQuery.