IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Work in teams > Use software configuration management systems

Manage SCA modules, libraries, and staging modules in Integration Designer

Team development with IBM Integration Designer is most effective if everyone on the team follows some basic practices.

Read about authored and derived files in "Modules and staging modules" and "Integration Designer artifacts managed in source control" (see the related links).

Artifacts created in IBM Integration Designer should be managed in the Business Integration perspective; however, they have backing files that can only be seen in Physical Resources view or the Resource perspective.

Procedure

• When working with a module that is being managed under source control, make sure to check out the entire module from the remote software configuration management (SCM) system. Never check out an individual artifact, such as a single WSDL or XSD file, from a module that is managed in source control.

• Although a module can be checked out by multiple users simultaneously, only one person should ever have write-access to the module at any one time if the system allows that restriction. Enforcing such practices prevents merge conflicts. If you need to make changes to a module and want to prevent other users from committing any changes, lock the module for exclusive write-access. Any management system you use will work best if there is good communication among developers.

• When using libraries, keep in mind that changing a shared business object or WSDL may have unexpected side effects on other modules or components that also use this library artifact.

• Always synchronize changes with the repository before blindly adding code through commit or update actions. Although a full synchronization is not strictly required before you commit or update artifacts, synchronizing will not only provide you with a full list of changes, but might also prevent you from inadvertently overwriting modified artifacts saved by other users.

• If synchronization conflicts do occur, manually merge the changes rather than relying on the text-based merge techniques used in the Integration Developer merge tools. Although text-based merging works well with Java™ code, it is not as reliable for XML-based Integration Developer artifacts.

  If you use the merge tools to combine two BPEL processes, you will be merging raw XML code or plain text, which is contrary to the standard GUI editors that exist for many Integration Developer artifacts.

• Use the Show Files option in the Business Integration view to see a list of the backing files for a component.
• Never change the derived flag in the artifact properties. Integration Designer generates background files when you build your project. These generated files are automatically marked as derived when they are generated. Derived files should not be placed in the source control management system. In most cases, you should not change that derived marking.

  If an authored artifact is changed to derived, Integration Designer will permanently delete the file from the SCA module. This deletion occurs because the builders assume that a derived file is a generated file. The program assumes that generated files can only be created during deployment or installation; therefore, this derived artifact must be present by mistake, so the program deletes it from the workspace. This behavior only exists for SCA modules; other modules, such as web or Java projects, can contain derived artifacts that will not be removed during deployment.

• If you are using Rational ClearCase, do not change the read-only flag on a file.
• Usually, you do not need to manage staging modules in source control, but there are exceptions described below.

  1. You need to manage the ModuleNameApp staging module under version control in rare cases where the module deployment editor lacks a feature that exists in the ModuleNameApp Java EE deployment descriptor.

  2. In cases where you need to add custom web content, such as web client interfaces, create a separate web project for that custom dynamic web content. You should not add custom code to the ModuleName web staging module.

Use software configuration management systems

Related concepts:
Modules and staging modules in Integration Designer

Related reference:
Integration Designer artifacts managed in source control