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SnapshotCM Newsletter for July, 2012

Contents:

  • Editor's Blog
    • Product-Line Users Guide
    • Product-Line release updated
  • Users Guide to Product-Line Dependencies
  • Recommended Releases
  • Links We Like

Editor's Blog

Our feature article this month is a user's guide to SnapshotCM's product-line dependency features. It describes the features that are present and how to access them and will give you everything you need to get started with these new features. And if you haven't updated yet, it will show you what you're missing.

We've also packaged a minor release update to incorporate one user-visible fix and two small improvements. Because the problem only affects the Windows GUI, only those packages are refreshed. For a complete list of user-visible changes, see the Change List, or contact us.

And don't forget to check out Links We Like, including a fun performance of the The Cyber Conductor.

As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas. To contact us, use one of the E-mail links in the page footer.

Scott Kramer
President

User Guide to Product-Line Dependencies

This chapter discusses how to apply product-line dependencies (or simply dependencies) to your project.

Terminology

SnapshotCM dependencies provide linkage between related projects that you want to group into a single unit for building, releasing, branching, merging, etc. For example, if snapshot A uses snapshots B & C for building, development, etc., recording that dependency causes B & C (the dependent snapshots) to be automatically included in actions applied to A (the primary snapshot). Figure 1 illustrates this.

Figure 1: Snapshot Dependency Terminology
Snapshot A depends on, or uses B & C. Equivalently, we say that snapshots B & C are used by A. A is the primary snapshot and B & C are the dependent snapshots.

We will get into the details later, but for now, the important point is that dependencies define a group of snapshots to operate upon together.

Viewing Dependencies

Figures 2a and 2b show a project with and without dependencies. When dependencies are present, SnapshotCM adds a link overlay onto the standard icons, and a Dependencies folder. The link overlay provides a quick indicator of the presence of dependencies. Note that the link overlay and Dependencies folder are displayed when a snapshot is either a primary or dependent member of a dependency relationship, and it may be both at once.

     
Figure 2a: Project without dependencies. Figure 2b: Project with dependencies.   Figure 2c: Showing project dependencies.

SnapshotCM provides three methods to display dependencies:

  1. A tooltip on the link overlay in the release graph (shown in figure 2c).
  2. A tooltip on the dependencies folder (not shown).
  3. Expanding the dependencies folder (shown in figure 2c).

Dependencies are directional, displayed as either Uses or Used by. Within the dependencies folder, Uses dependencies display with a right-pointing icon, as shown under dependencies in figure 2c. An up and to the left pointing icon indicates a Used by relationship. In addition, frozen dependencies are indicated using the standard ice-blue color.

Creating Dependencies

SnapshotCM provides three ways to create dependency relationships.

The simplest is to select the intended primary snapshot, then invoke the Snapshot->Add Snapshot Dependency... menu and select the dependent, or used by snapshot. Any snapshot can be used by any other snapshot, even snapshots on a different server.

Dependencies are also created whenever you copy or branch a primary snapshot which already has uses dependencies. This will be discussed later.

Finally, you can use existing workspace mounts to create a corresponding set of dependencies. This is useful when first starting to use dependencies. Before you can do this, however, you must identify the primary snapshot from those the workspace mounts. Remember, the primary snapshot is the one that uses the other snapshots.

You identify a workspace's primary snapshot by double-clicking a mount on the Attributes page of workspace properties. An indicator on the left, as shown in figure 3, indicates the primary mount whose snapshot will depend on all other mounted snapshots. You must press OK to save the change.

Figure 3: Double-click to select the primary snapshot mount, then press OK.

Once the primary mount/snapshot is identified, open the Project Browser, select the workspace you wish to create dependencies from, and then select the Snapshot->Synchronize Dependencies menu (or equivalent context menu). A dialog will confirm the actions to be taken.

Editing Dependencies

Perform direct creating, editing and deleting of dependencies using the context menu on the Dependency folder and its children. The synchronization options, discussed next, also provide automated dependency editing for specific scenarios.

Synchronizing a Workspace with Dependency Changes

We previously looked at how to create initial dependencies from a workspace. The same action can synchronize dependencies from a changed workspace definition. In addition, the Sync Mounts action in Workspace Properties will add/remove mounts to synchronize the workspace definition with an updated set of dependencies. These actions are only enabled when the dependencies and mounts are not already synchronized.

Using Dependencies to Understand Project Relationships

Since dependencies are intended to group related projects, they encapsulate which projects (and which versions or snapshots of those projects) are used by each version of your project. Similarly, looking from the dependent project/snapshot perspective, you can see which snapshots of your project are being used, and by whom. Both perspectives facilitate user understanding of a project. In addition, when dependencies are recorded within SnapshotCM, SnapshotCM can act upon a primary and its dependent snapshots in a single user action. Following are the key ways dependencies are used in our initial release.

Using Dependencies to Navigate Between Projects

Dependencies provide a short-cut for navigating between related projects. Double-clicking on a snapshot in the Dependencies folder will switch the Project Browser to display and select it. Because both uses and used by dependencies are shown, this also is useful to switch back to the primary project/snapshot. The Open Project action is also available on the dependency snapshot's context menu.

Using Dependencies to Create a Product Workspace

Dependencies are used to automatically populate the workspace mounts for a new workspace. This greatly simplifies workspace creation and helps ensure that workspaces are created correctly and consistently. A workspace mounting a snapshot and its dozen dependencies can be created in just a few clicks. Simply create a workspace for the primary snapshot and all dependent snapshots are automatically mounted.

Using Dependencies to Create New Release Snapshots for a Product

When creating a new release snapshot from a primary snapshot, the new snapshot will have dependencies on everything the original snapshot has dependencies on, or on new copies of those original dependencies (you choose for each dependency). Figure 4 shows the dialog for this. Note that the primary snapshot will be copied into a snapshot named 3.0 and will use the new /Monsoon/3.0 (copied from /Monsoon/Current) and the existing /Config/Current snapshots.

Figure 4: New Release Snapshot dialog showing the dependencies which will be created.

You can select which dependencies to use unchanged in the new snapshot, and which to also copy. In addition, you can customize how to insert the new snapshots into the release graph of their respective projects and whether to freeze the new snapshots.

Using Dependencies to Create Development Snapshots for a Product

When creating a new development snapshot from a primary snapshot, the new snapshot will have dependencies on everything the original snapshot has dependencies on, or on new copies of those original dependencies. This behavior is consistent with creating new release snapshots, except that these new snapshots are created as children of the originals.

Using Dependencies to Copy/Promote/Update Changes for a Product

The Compare Browser loads differences for the snapshots being compared, as well as their pair-able dependent snapshots. Pairing works as follows:

  1. Identical dependencies are recognized and removed as no differences can exist.
  2. Dependencies from the same project are paired.
  3. Dependencies from different projects are never paired.
  4. Unpaired snapshots are ignored.

All differences for the paired snapshots are loaded at once. In order to distinguish otherwise identical paths within different projects, items in the Compare Browser are displayed with their full workspace path, which also makes it easy to see which change belongs to which snapshot pair.

Using Dependencies to Freeze, Unfreeze or Delete a Snapshot Product

When freezing, unfreezing or deleting a primary snapshot, you are given the option to also act upon the dependencies. Figure 5 shows the dialog that appears.

Figure 5: Dialog for freezing a snapshot and its dependencies. Snapshot /Monsoon/2.0 is already frozen so cannot be selected.

Check the snapshots to which to apply the action. Sometimes you cannot select a dependency for action, in which case a note of explanation is displayed.

Summary: Dependencies provide product-level actions in a reuse-oriented, product-line environment.

SnapshotCM dependencies provide a powerful means to operate across multiple projects quickly, efficiently, and accurately. The product abstraction means users can focus more on their intent and less on the details of implementation. And because dependencies facilitate project reuse, especially in a product-line development and production environment, your whole team benefits. Install the SnapshotCM Product-Line release today and experience for yourself the benefits of SnapshotCM's product-line support.

Recommended Releases

The following releases are recommended:

  • 1.90.0.20/1.90.1.21 - The product-line release, with the latest features and fixes.
  • 1.85.5.12 - The last pre-product-line release.
  • 1.84.2 / 1.84.2.1 - A known stable release.
  • 1.82.06 / 1.82.07 / 1.82.08 - stable version with the old (single mount) workspace model.

If you are running any other release, we recommend that you update to the latest recommended version that your license allows.

For a complete list of user-visible changes, see the Change List.

Links We Like

Links we find interesting, fun, or occasionally useful.

We are looking for interesting links to share. Send to sales@truebluesoftware.com.

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