Synchronization window

Use the Synchronization window to compare artifacts exported from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler to artifacts in your IBM Integration Designer workspace and to merge changes into the workspace application.

The Synchronization window is optimized to work with a specific project structure exported from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler. (That structure is described in the topic Project structure exported from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler.) The real value of this window is its ability to merge the contents of the projects in your workspace with changes exported from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler. This ability allows you to modify the process exported from the model without losing those changes when a newer version of the process is exported.

The window compares those projects and the ones in your workspace to the last synchronized version of the projects. The window shows the changes that have been made since the previous import or synchronization. It shows the changes that have been made in the workspace and the changes in the projects that were exported from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler. It also shows if any of those changes conflict with each other. It is your responsibility to choose the changes that you want to keep. Some changes are marked as accepted by default, but you should still examine all of these changes to ensure that you want to adopt them.

The window opens with all workspace changes, and all non-conflicting incoming changes, marked as accepted. Accepting non-conflicting incoming changes is a preference that you can modify if you would rather not accept them by default. To modify this preference click Window > Preferences > General > Compare/Patch > Modeling Compare/Merge and toggle the Automatically accept resolvable differences for repository merge session check box.

Review the changes from the model and decide if you want to add them to your workspace. Reject changes from the model if you do not want to make those changes in your workspace. If you reject a change from the model, that change will continue to appear in future IBM WebSphere Business Modeler exports until it is either removed from the model in IBM WebSphere Business Modeler or accepted into your IBM Integration Designer workspace.

Select any project or artifact in the Affected Artifacts pane to see the details of changes that have been made to that project or artifact. Click the Workspace Artifacts tab to see a list of changes from an IBM Integration Designer perspective. Click the Modeling Artifacts tab to see the same changes presented as resources familiar to users of IBM WebSphere Business Modeler. Changes related to the artifact that you select in the Affected Artifacts pane show in the Changes in the Selected Artifact pane, where you can accept or reject them. Where possible the lower pane, Change Details, provides a visual display of the currently selected change to the artifact.

Synchronization is supported for XML maps. However, changes to XML maps cannot be visualized in the preview pane. They are however reported textually in the Changes in Selected Artifact pane.

While synchronization is supported, changes made to an XML map in IBM Integration Designer cannot be exported to a model for further development in IBM WebSphere Business Modeler. Hence feedback between IBM Integration Designer and IBM WebSphere Business Modeler is not supported for XML maps.

Press the Commit button to save the changes that you accepted into the workspace.

Tabs

Affected Artifacts > Workspace Artifacts tab: Click the Workspace Artifacts tab to see a list of the artifacts that were changed since the last synchronization rendered in terms of the artifacts used in IBM Integration Designer.

Affected Artifacts > Modeling Artifacts tab: Click the Modeling Artifacts tab to see a list of the artifacts that were changed since the last synchronization rendered in terms of the artifacts used in IBM WebSphere Business Modeler.

Changes in Selected Artifact > Workspace Changes tab: Click this tab to see all the changes that have been made in IBM Integration Designer since the model was last imported or, after the first update, all the changes that were made since the last synchronization. You can right-click the root to accept all the changes that were made in the workspace, but be aware that the action will automatically reject any conflicting changes coming from the model. Those changes will show as rejected in the Modeling Changes tab.

Changes in Selected Artifact > Modeling Changes tab: Click this tab to see all the changes that have been made in IBM WebSphere Business Modeler since the model was last imported or, after the first update, all the changes that were made since the last synchronization. You can right-click the root to accept all incoming changes from the model, but be aware that the action will automatically reject any conflicting changes that were made in the workspace. Those changes will show as rejected in the Workspace Changes tab.

Changes in Selected Artifact > Conflicting Changes tab: Click this tab to see conflicts that occur when the same artifact has been changed in both the workspace and the model.

You can accept changes from the model or from the workspace, either individually or collectively. Alternatively, you can ignore the changes, which will reject the changes from both sides and revert to the previously synchronized version of the artifact.

Buttons

Associate button

: Click this button to open the Custom Associations wizard, where you can match artifacts from the model with artifacts in your workspace to get a more precise comparison.

Show/Hide Change Details

: Click this button to toggle a graphical display of the selected change in the Change Details pane.

Accept All Non-Conflicting Changes button

: All the changes from both sides, both from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler and from the workspace, that do not create a conflict will be accepted.

You can then resolve the conflicting changes individually. Use this button with care; all currently rejected changes will now be accepted, and you will overwrite files in your workspace that you might have intended to keep unchanged.

Apply All Modeling Changes button

: All changes from the model, regardless of whether they conflict with changes in the workspace, are accepted. You will not be warned of conflicts. Changes that were made in the workspace are not affected unless they are overwritten by conflicting changes from the model.

Keep All Workspace Changes button

: All changes from the workspace, regardless of whether they conflict with changes from the model, are accepted. You will not be warned of conflicts. Changes from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler are not affected unless they are overwritten by conflicting changes from the model.

Save List of Changes button

: Click this button to create a text file of all the changes.

Icons

In the Changes in the Selected Artifact pane, the changes are shown with one of various icons. These icons help you to distinguish new, changed or deleted features. The icons are further decorated with a white check mark on a green background or a white "x" on a blue background to denote whether that change will be accepted or rejected when you click Commit. The icons can also be decorated with a padlock item which indicates that the artifact in question is locked and should not be changed in the workspace.

Green plus sign

: Denotes that the selected artifact has been added.

Red "X" sign

: Denotes that the selected artifact has been removed.

Green triangle with an inset blue triangle

: Denotes that the selected artifact has been modified.

Green triangle with a second green triangle

: Denotes a group of changes.

Change Details pane

The Change Details pane provides a graphical view of the change that you are considering. Not all changes can be rendered in the Change Details page, in these cases the message "No rendering available" is shown in the Change Details pane.

The changed artifact is shown in its context, so that you can see not just the change, but also the surrounding artifacts. This is done to give you a better understanding of the consequences of the proposed change. When you select a change in the Changes in Selected Artifact pane the lower pane displays the artifact with the proposed change highlighted. Below is a description of the highlighting and its corresponding meaning.

Artifact is deleted, change is accepted. The artifact is shown highlighted in red, but black lines and text are displayed in gray. The faded display indicates that this object would be removed if you click Commit at this stage.

Artifact is deleted, change is rejected. The artifact is shown highlighted in red.

Artifact is added, change is accepted. The artifact is shown highlighted in green.

Artifact is added, change is rejected. The artifact is shown highlighted in green, but black lines and text are displayed in gray. The faded display indicates that this object will not be added if you click Commit at this stage.

Artifact is modified. The highlighting depends on the modification. In some instances orange highlighting is used, but in some cases the old parts are displayed in faint red and the new parts are shown in bold green.

Developing an application from a model

Related tasks:
Merging changes from the model into the workspace