This talk is dedicated to the source control and release management patterns, practices, and tools used in the development of BEXIS

1. BEXIS Tech Talk Series
#7: Configuration and Change
Management
Javad Chamanara
October 2016
Jena, Germany

2. Reminder: The CM
BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management
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DataMetadata
Data StructureMetadata Structure Semantics Geo
Administration Security
«use»
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3. Reminder: The Architecture
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management
DB2 PgS
Data Access
Security
Core Functions
UI
UI Framework
...
Modularity
Integration
Synthesis Work
Semantic Search
Analytics
User Defined
Spatial Querying
External Tools
Web Services
Archiving
Import/ Export
Publishing

4. The Application’s Elements
• Core
• Modules
• Contributions
• 3rd Party Libraries
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

5. Configuration and Change
Management
• Change Management
• Source Control
• Release Management
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

6. Change Management
• Agile
– Scrum
• MS TFS
– Backlogs
– Tasks
– Change Requests
– Sprints
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

7. Change Management
• Product backlog
• Release backlog
• Sprint backlog
• Work Item assignment
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management

8. Source Control
With a source control system:
• Changes to the artifacts are preserved
• Changes can be done in isolation
• Changes are eventually integrated
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

9. Source Control
• Isolation
– Bug fixes
– Releases
– New Features
– Developer work
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

10. Source Control
• Integration
– Merging isolated work
– Propagating fixes and features
– Promoting quality
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

11. Source Control
• Use commits for change preservation
• Use branches for isolation
• Use merging for integration
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

12. Branching Approach
• Branch for Team Members
• Branch for Features
• Branch for Architectural elements
• Branch for Releases
• Branch for Safekeeping
• Ad-hoc Branching
– Risky features
– Complex bugs during releases
– Temporary work: refactoring, framework upgrades
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

13. Branches
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management
Master
DEV
Modules/DCM Modules/RPM
Components/DLM Components/EXT

14. The Master Branch
• Is used for safe keeping
• No coding, no changes
• All test cases pass!
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

15. The DEV Branch
• Integration Branch
• Always for the next release
• No coding here
• Code always compiles!
• Integration tests pass!
• Occasional changes for conflict resolution:
– Configuration
– Merge
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

16. The Module Branches
• Adding new features to next releases
• Unit tests pass!
• Branch name: modules/<moduleID>
• Forked from the DEV branch
• Get merged from DEV first
• Merge into DEV
• May be locked during releases
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

17. The Component Branches
• Adding new features to next releases
• Unit tests pass!
• Branch name: components/<componentID>
• Forked from the DEV branch
• Get merged from DEV first
• Merge into DEV
• May be locked during releases
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

18. Tooling
• GIT
• TFS VC
– GIT integration
• Github
• Visual Studio
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

19. Policies & Practices
• Branches can be used by more than one
developer
• Developers may work on more than one
branch
• Branches may have ad-hoc/temporary sub-
branches
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

20. Policies & Practices
• Work in isolation
• Get upper changes ASAP
• Pull before Push
• Fix issues on deepest (or isolated) branch
• Maintain target branch’s quality after merging
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

21. Releases
• To publish a coherent set of working artifacts
– A set of chosen features
– From the release backlog
– Every 3-4 months
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

22. Release Materials
• Binary code
• Source code
• Documentation
• Sample Demo Site
• Initial Data/Workspace
• DB Scripts
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

23. Builds under Control, too!
• Bundling Scripts
– Compilation
– DB change scripts
– Document/Manual Formatting (PDF, HTML)
– Branding Information
– Commands
– Packaging
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

24. Branching for Release
• Release branch is:
– forked from DEV
• Name: /releases/<x>.<y>
– Used for stabilizing the designated feature set
– Used by all the release team members
– Is built daily
– Is staged daily (for testing)
– Is tagged, bundled, and published
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

25. Branching for Release
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management
Master
DEV
R1
Released V1.0 Released V1.1
R2
Released V2.1Released V2.0

26. Release Branching
• Is used to isolate other branches, releases,
and the development from the changes.
• Supports multiple alive releases
– Previously released ones
– The current one
• Allows previous releases reproduction
• Permits exact version bug assignment, fixing,
and promotion.
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

27. Release Integration
• Merge all module and component branches to
DEV
• Create the release branch from DEV
• Do not merge again from DEV during release
– Necessary cases can be handled with care!
– Merge to DEV is safe
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management

28. Release Integration
• Promote the release code
– Realases/<x.y>  DEV
– DEV  module branches
– DEV  component branches
– DEV  master
• Tag branches accordingly
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management

29. The Github Repository
• https://github.com/BEXIS2
• Updated after major releases
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management

30. Public Repository
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management
Master
DEV
R1
Released V1.0 Released V1.1
R2
Released V2.1Released V2.0
Github Repo: master
V1.0
V1.1
V2.0
V2.1

31. The Public Repository
• Open Source
• Fork
• Pull Request
• Feature Request
• Bug Reporting
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management
https://github.com/BEXIS2
1: <Mailto: bexis2-dev@listserv.uni-jena.de>
<Subscribe to: https://lserv.uni-jena.de/mailman/listinfo/bexis2-dev>
1
1

32. Contribution Projects
• Use the public repository
• Pull the released versions
• Develop on top of them
• Publish their contribution freely
• Share their enhancements with us
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BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and Change
Management

33. Outlook
What‘s next in the talk series?
Implementation Notes
BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management
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Thanks!
Questions?
Contact:
javad.chamanara@uni-jena.de
http://bexis2.uni-jena.de
Acknowledgment
BEXIS Tech Talk #7: Configuration and
Change Management
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