Designer Repository Overview

Designer Repository feature was implemented in Decisions 3.5. This feature creates an environment of highly managed Projects in Decisions. The Designer Repository allows us to manage changes that are made to the Project, commit them, revert them, or rollback the Project to the desirable state. This environment is secured by user credentials when he or she wants to make changes to the Project. Moreover, this feature uses Decisions Permissions semantics to allow only desirable users to participate in the Project.

Example:

This document overviews the main features of Designer Repository in Decisions.

Note: If we perform clean Installation of Decisions, we are able to select Designer Repository Server Type Installation in the Installer.

To get Designer Repository in Installed Decisions, Server Type should be changed from Unhandled to either Repository. To do so, run Decisions Installer and click Edit Settings.

In Settings window locate Server Type, change it to Repository and click Save. Then, close Settings window, close Installer and restart Service Host Manager. You can also change Server Type in Settings.xml file that can be found in the folder where Decisions installed > Decisions Services Manager folder.

After we have restarted SHM and logged into our Decisions Studio we should be able to see Designer Repository Folder in Portal Tree. This means that we can use the Designer Repository feature.

If we navigate to Designer Repository we should see a Dashboard that reports on the created Projects. We can also create a new Project by clicking Create Project button on the Folder Actions Panel.

In the resulting window we Name our Project and click Ok.

Our Project is being displayed on the Designer Repository Dashboard. Counters on the top of the Dashboard are calculating total Number of Projects and Number of Resources. On the right-hand panel we can see available Options for the selected Project.

They are:

• Create Branch
• Create Sub Project
• Delete
• Download
• Manage
• Open
• Rollback

Every change to the Project creates a new Revision (state of the project), therefore we can rollback our Project to desirable state.

If we open our Project we will be presented with a Project Dashboard. Each Project has Trunk Branch by default. We can also create additional Branches of our Project. We would want to do so if, for example, we would like to manage and build two different versions of the Project. Also, we can create Sub Projects in our Projects. This would be helpful in the following case scenario: we would like to use same Converter Flow in two different Projects. We can create a Global Project with our Entities that we would like to share and Sub Projects that will have an access to these shared Entities.

Note: you should use dot notation when Name Sub Project like: ParentProject.SubProject

If we open Trunk in our Project we will be presented with a Dashboard for this Branch. This Dashboard informs us about All Committed Revisions in this Branch, number of Checkins, Resources for this Project and other Options. Because our Project is empty at this moment, we do not see any Resources. We can only see one Revision Committed that was created when we created New Project. Also, we can see who was the last person committed changes to the Project and when.

For each Revision we have the following options:

• Delete Repository Checkin
• Get Project as of Revision
• Rollback to this Revision
• Show Changes
• Add
• Manage

We can set up Designer Repository server address in Designer Repository Settings found in System > Settings Folder in the Portal.

Also we can set if we would like Repository Actions to be shown.

Next, we are going to add some entities to our Project. In the Designer Folder we click Create Flow on the Folder Actions Panel.

Then, we Name the Flow and click Create to proceed to the Flow Designer.

In the Flow Designer we simply Save the Flow and close Flow Designer.

Back in the Designer Folder we locate a thumbnail for the Flow that we have just created and on the Actions menu we hover over Designer Repository. The options are:

• Add To Project
• Checkout Project
• Open Repository Server

We click Add To Project to add our Flow to the Project.

In the resulting window we can either Create a New Project or Pick existing and click Continue.

If we selected to Create a New Project, the next step in the Wizard would be to Commit Now the Project to add it to Designer Repository.

Then, we Commit our Flow to the Project…

The final window in this Wizard informs us that the Flow was successfully added to our Project. We can click Close button.

Next, we are going to Edit our Flow by adding a Form to it…

After we edited our Flow it looks as following… We can save the Flow and close Flow Designer.

Back in the Designer Folder we click Actions menu on the Flow’s thumbnail. Designer Repository sub-menu is changed for our Flow and now it is aware of the Project this Flow belongs to. Because the Form that we have added to the Flow is not in our Project, we need to Add Dependencies to the Project for our Flow to work correctly.

Note: we need to review things that we are Checking In. For example: if we use custom steps in the Flow, we need to make sure that they are existing on the Development server for safe check out.

When we click Add Dependencies we are provided with all items that are related to our Flow. Then, we simply check desirable items (in this example we simply check our Form) and click Add.

Next, we click Commit Now…

Then, we Commit changes to the Project…

Finally, Wizard informs us that new Revision was created in our Project along with changes that were committed in this revision. We click Close…

If we navigate to the Dashboard for our Project we can see all Revisions of the Project with Resources.

Each Revision in the Project has a set of options:

• Delete Repository Check In (to delete selected revision)
• Get Project as of Revision (to download the Project at selected state)
• Revert Revision (to cancel changes made in the selected revision)
• Rollback to this Revision (to return our Project to the selected state)
• Show Changes (to see what changes were done to the Project in selected revision)

 

Each Resource in the Project has following options:

• Delete (to delete resource from the Project)
• Update Resource (to update resource from the file)
• Download (current version, as of specific date, or specific revision)
• Manage
• Open

The Project has several Download Options like:

• Download Project (latest revision)
• Download as of Date (to download Project with options to select Branch and Date)
• Download Specific Revision (to download Project at desirable Revision)

Also, for each Branch in our Project we can create Tags for better project management. To do so, we can click Create Tag on Branch Folder Actions Panel.

Along with the Name for the Tag we can define a State for the Project. Click Ok to save the Tag.

 

Additional Resources

• Creating Your First Flow
• Flow Designer Wizard Overview
• Creating Your First Form Flow