Has anyone else become annoyed with Change Management in WF 8?

We've lost several features, so it gone from middling to poor in quality.

When we created a Change Management Extract package in WF 7, we could download it to the desktop, navigate to the other environment and point the Change Management Load process to the downloaded file.

Now we have to use Windows to copy the Change Management Extract package folder from one server's CM folder to the other server's CM folder. We may not have access to these folders.

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When we ran the Change Management Load process in WF 7, we could check the "Backup packages" option which backed up all the entities we were about to update. Then, if necessary, we could load the backed up entities to revert the changes.

Now we have to create a Change Management Extract package on the target server to use as the backup to enable us to revert. Heaven help us if we didn't include exactly the same files as the ones we're about to update.

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Choosing the files to add to the Change Management Extract package is annoying as well. We cannot see the Last Update Date or any other information other than the entity id. We must have Dev Studio open with the Explorer window contents sorted in reverse Last Updated Date/Time order so we can choose the appropriate entities in Change Management.

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This is certainly not enterprise quality software. And I've been told to stay away from using Change Management to deploy files on the reporting server and on the web server - it's safe only for the Content area.

And you only see entity titles, not file names.

Hi,

Webfocus can move the change package for you.
We have dev test and prod environements and let webfocus move the files. To do this go to the administration console. Select Application settings, Application Directories then set your export directory to the directory on the server that you are wanting the code to be on.

for example on our dev box we set the export directory to be the UNC name for the import direcotry on our test box. You do have to restart the client for this to take effect.

We have put requests in for enhancements to change management.

One we would like to see is the ability to schedule.

Anyway hope this helps a little

Crystal

Crystal, thanks for the suggestion. This will only work if the servers can talk to each other. We have Dev, QA, UAT and Prod and I'm pretty sure none of them talk to each other.

Regards,

One thing it makes it more difficult, is that if your client is clustered and have SSO going, you end up taking a stab at what side of the cluster your trying to get. I end up having it copied to both sides of the cluster.

I agree -
It would be nice to have an upload/download to your local desktop. Makes it handy when you don't have access to the file system in QA/Prod.

I think I might be alone on this one... But I actually find CM to be an improvement on 77. I find it easier to organize and maintain. Also I can move almost everything this way, where I had to do my RS files, Security, and Web Files seperately before. To your point of its not simple to copy the files, I do agree that this could be improved upon. My opinion is that you should be able to define your lower level environment and connection credentials. This would solve the issue of not having access to a UAT/Prod environment. And you can maintain who has access to what through WebFOCUS security rules.

At the moment moving files is not an issue for me, I use a naming convention and enforce the same on my developers. Here we have a linux jump host for moving files between environments, So I just SCP the files to the jump host that I need (SCP file_abbrev*), and then back into the import directory of the Environment I need it in. Its a very simple process for me.

You can create a focexec that list all the directories in the cm\emports folder. for there have a multi drill that allows the user to 1 show archives, or 2 create new archive. I call them archives really they are just zip files that a WebFOCUS procedure creates from the cm\exports\?? folder. the zip file we use has the date and time as part of the name along with the folder name. and it then copies/deletes the from from exports to a folder under apps on the reporting server. from that we select which zip file we want and a wf procedure generates the download url. we then download the zip file and send it to whoever is going to be running import process. for now the importer has to remote into the machine and unzip the file. But you could create an upload servlet that allows them to upload the file, unzips it, and presents them with a button to import vis a Restful WebService call. Thats the power of WebFOCUS you an do anything if you think about it. Just food for thought.

quote:

That's the power of WebFOCUS you an do anything if you think about it

I think we need to tell IBI that. All the smart people will build their own add-on functionality to the CM tool, when the CM tool should already have the functionality.

The biggest annoyance for me is that there is no decent way to determine which files I want to include in a package. The tool is extremely rudimentary.

Agreed that its rudimentary, but the old version was even more so. Even though it has a lot of room to grow, At least I use it, when I wouldn't touch it before.