3 Change Center

This chapter provides instructions on using the Change Center in the Oracle Service Bus Administration Console. Procedures include activating sessions, viewing configuration changes, undoing configuration tasks, and resolving conflicts.

The Change Center allows for team collaboration when services and metadata are being configured in Oracle Service Bus. Each user works in a sandbox session until the user is ready to check in the working configuration to the core configuration of the bus. The change center provides multiple levels of undo, and visibility into conflicts, as multiple users work on the configuration.

Most of the Change Center pages display different information based on whether you are in a session (for example, if you have clicked Edit in the Change Center) or outside a session. For example, in a session, the View Configuration Changes page that appears when you click View Changes in the Change Center lists all the changes you have made in that session; outside a session, the page lists all session activations.

Table 3-1 displays Change Center tasks and related session information.

Table 3-1 Change Center Tasks and Session Information

Tasks Session Information

View conflicts

Inside session only: This link displays the number of conflicts occurring in a session. View and resolve all conflicts between changes in the current session and those made by all other sessions within the Oracle Service Bus Administration Console. A conflict occurs if a resource modified in the current session has already been modified and activated by another session. Two changes to the same resource by two sessions do not cause a conflict until one of the sessions is activated.

This page also displays semantic errors for resources in the session.

View changes

Inside session: View the configuration changes you have made during the current session.

Outside session: View configuration changes that are caused by previous session activations.

Undo changes

Inside session: Undo a change you have made during the current session.

Outside session: Undo an activation of a session.

View all sessions

Inside and outside session: View all existing sessions within the Oracle Service Bus Administration Console.

Activate sessions

Inside session only: Activate the session.

View task details

Inside session: View details of a specific change you made in the current session.

Outside session: View details of specific changes made by a previous session activation.


3.1 Using the Change Center

The Change Center module is the starting point for using the Oracle Service Bus Administration Console to make changes to your configuration. To make configuration changes using the Administration Console, you must use the Change Center to start a session.

  1. Click Edit or Create to begin a session. The name of the session is displayed under Change Center.

  2. Make the appropriate changes on the relevant page of the Administration Console.

  3. Click Save on each page where you make a change. All the changes you have made in the current session are saved.

    Click Discard under Change Center, at any time during the session, to discard the changes you have made so far in the current session.

  4. When you have finished making changes, click Activate under Change Center. Continue in Section 3.2, "Activating Sessions."

3.2 Activating Sessions

To activate a session:

  1. Click Activate in the Change Center. The Activate Session page shows the session name, user name, and a description field.

    Creating a session and discarding a session proceed regardless of other activity in the system. However, if another session is in the process of being activated, the Activate Session page displays an error indicating the user that has the pending WebLogic Server changes. For information on resolving conflicts between changes made in your session and other activated sessions, see Section 3.9, "Viewing and Resolving Conflicts."

  2. If there are validation errors, an error message is displayed, indicating that your session has validation errors. View and fix configuration conflicts before you proceed. For information on fixing conflicts, see Section 3.9, "Viewing and Resolving Conflicts."

    You will not be able to activate the session until you have viewed all conflicts. If new conflicts arise while you view the existing conflicts, before you activate, a message pops up informing you of the new conflicts.

  3. Enter a description in the Description field. This description is displayed in the Description column when you click View Changes under Change Center to display configuration changes caused by session activations.

  4. To activate the session, click Submit. If no new conflicts have arisen in the interim, the session ends and the configuration is deployed to the runtime.

    Note:

    When you attempt to activate a session with a JMS endpoint URI on another server (a single server other than the one on which you are working, or a Managed Server in a cluster), ensure that the destination server is available.

    Oracle Service Bus does not allow registration of proxy services with JMS transport if the JMS endpoint URL specifies a destination that is unreachable. In other words, for JMS services, Oracle Service Bus checks if the specified connection factory exists; if it does not, a session activation error occurs.

3.3 Exiting Sessions

Click Exit under Change Center at any time to exit the session. However, the session does not end.

You can click Edit under Change Center to return to the session and continue making changes. This behavior also applies if you click Logout to log out of the Administration Console or close your browser. The session and all changes that you have made in the session persist even if you log out of the Administration Console or the server is restarted.

The session ends only after it has been activated. See Section 3.2, "Activating Sessions."

3.4 Viewing Configuration Changes

This page displays different information based on whether you are in a session (that is, you have clicked Edit in the Change Center) or outside a session.

  • When you are in a session, the View Configuration Changes page displays a list of configuration changes that you have made during the current session. See "Viewing Configuration Changes in a Session" in this section.

  • When you are outside a session, the View Configuration Changes page displays a list of configuration changes that were caused by previous session activations. See "Viewing Configuration Changes Caused by Session Activations" in this section.

Viewing Configuration Changes in a Session

  1. If you have not already done so, click Create to create a new session for making changes to the current configuration. See Section 3.1, "Using the Change Center."

  2. Make at least one change to the configuration.

  3. Click View Changes under Change Center. For each change you have made to the configuration during the current session, the View Configuration Changes page displays the information shown in Table 3-2.

Table 3-2 In-Session Configuration Changes

Property Description

Task

A description of the task that was implemented. The task is a link to the Task Details page. See Section 3.7, "Viewing Task Details."

Execution Time

The date and time that the task was executed.

User

The name of the user who implemented the change.

Task Status

The status of the task:

Completed—the task was completed.

Undone—the task was undone.

Undo Completed—the undo was completed.

Undone By

The name of the user who undid the task. This field will contain None if the task has not been undone.

Options

Click the Undo icon to reverse the execution of the task.

When you are working in a session, you can undo tasks in any order.

As a result of undoing a task, the object of the task reverts to the state it was in before the task in question was performed. Note, however, that any tasks that were performed on the same object after the task that you undo are also undone. See Section 3.6, "Undoing Tasks."


Viewing Configuration Changes Caused by Session Activations

  1. Make sure you are not in a session. See Section 3.3, "Exiting Sessions."

  2. Click View Changes under Change Center. For each session you have previously activated, the View Configuration Changes page displays the information shown in Table 3-3.

Table 3-3 Activated Configuration Changes

Property Description

Task

A description of the session that was activated. The task is a link to the Task Details page, which displays the operations that were performed in the session. See Section 3.7, "Viewing Task Details."

Description

An additional description of the session that was activated, if a description was entered when the session was activated using the Activate Session page.

Execution Time

The date and time that the session was activated.

User

The name of the user who activated the session.

Task Status

The status of the session:

Activated—the session was activated.

Partially Activated—displayed during session activation if one or more servers in a cluster are inaccessible, thus preventing activation of the session on those servers. When the servers become accessible, any unactivated changes will then be activated on them.

Undone—the previously activated session was undone and all the operations performed in the session were discarded.

Undo Activated—the undo was activated.

In Progress—displayed if a session activation is in progress, as session activations can take a long time.

Failed—displayed if a session activation fails. Oracle Service Bus tracks session activation failures but not failures due to individual updates inside a session.

Undone By

The name of the user who undid this task. This field will contain None if the session activation has not been undone.

Options

Click the Undo icon to reverse the session activation and the operations performed in that session. You can undo session activations in any order.

Click the Undo into Session icon to create a new session pre-populated with the tasks needed to undo the changes activated in the session. See Section 3.6.2, "Undoing Into a Session."


3.5 Purging Session Activation History

You can purge sessions activated over a specific period, delimited by start and end dates. This action can only be performed outside a session.

Caution:

Purging session activation history involves deleting data that enables multiple levels of undo. In other words, if you purge session activation history for a specific period, you will not be able to undo sessions activated during that period.
  1. Ensure that you are not in an active session, and click View Changes.

  2. On the View Configuration Changes page, click Purge By Date. The Purge Session Activation History by Date page is displayed.

  3. Enter the Start and End dates, in their respective fields, in the format: MM/DD/YYYY.

    The session activation history for all sessions between the dates specified will be deleted from Oracle Service Bus.

3.6 Undoing Tasks

Use the View Configuration Changes page to undo tasks that you have performed in your Oracle Service Bus configuration during your current session, and to undo session activations outside a session. Oracle Service Bus lets you undo multiple levels of session activation, constrained only by your system resources. For more information, see Section 3.6.1, "Order of Undoing Tasks."

Note:

If you upgrade from Oracle Service Bus version 2.1 to version 2.5, you will not be able to undo sessions activated before the upgrade. Sessions activated after the upgrade will be available in the session activation history, for undo.

Undoing a Task in a Session

  1. Make sure you are in a session.

  2. Click View Changes under Change Center.

  3. In the Options column for a specific task, click the Undo icon.

    The task is undone.

    You can undo any change in the current session. However after that, if you change your mind, you can undo the undo, or if you again change your mind, you can undo the undo that undid a previous undo, and so on.

Undoing a Session That Was Activated Earlier

  1. Make sure you are outside a session.

  2. Click View Changes under Change Center.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • In the Options column for a specific task, click the Undo icon. The session activation is undone.

    • In the Options column for a specific task, select the Undo into Session icon. A new session is created pre-populated with the tasks needed to undo the changes activated in the session. For more information, see Section 3.6.2, "Undoing Into a Session."

3.6.1 Order of Undoing Tasks

You can undo tasks in any order (provided that individual undo actions result in valid data). The undo operation sets the value of a resource to the value it had before the change to that resource.

In the case that the task that is being undone was one that created an object, there is no previous state to which an object can be returned—in other words, no object existed before this task was performed. Effectively, the undo operation deletes the new object from the session. In this case, errors occur for the objects that reference the one being deleted. You can view such errors on the View Conflicts page in the Change Center.

When you are not working in a session, you can access the View Configuration Changes page to see the sessions that were previously activated. You can undo these sessions. The system does not allow you to undo a session that was previously activated if an error in the runtime configuration would result from the undo action. For example, if you attempt to undo a session activation that results in the removal of an object that is being referenced by another object, that undo action is disallowed.

It is possible to undo an undo action. In the Options column of the Undo of [task], click the Undo icon. Oracle Service Bus supports unlimited undo. This means you can undo the undo that undid a previous undo, and so on.

3.6.2 Undoing Into a Session

If semantic errors result from undoing a session activation, you are prevented from doing the undo. However there is an alternative in this case. You can undo the session activation and have the changes put into a new session. You can then fix the semantic errors and activate the session. You can also use this capability of undoing into a session to explore the ramifications of a session activation undo. You can examine all the changes that result, and decide if you really want to do the undo. If you decide that you really want to, you can activate the session.

3.7 Viewing Task Details

Use this page to view details of a specific change you made in the current session if you are in the session, and view details of specific changes you made in sessions that have been activated if you are outside a session.

  1. Select View Changes under Change Center.

  2. On the View Configuration Changes page, click the name of the task in the Task column. The Task Details page displays the information shown in Table 3-4.

    Table 3-4 Task Details

    Property Description

    Task

    The type of task you performed.

    • Create

    • Update

    • Delete

    • Rename

    • Move

    Resource Type

    The Oracle Service Bus resource types that were part of the task.

    Resource

    The name and path of the resource. The path is the name of the project and folder in which the resource resides.


  3. Click Back to return to the View Configuration Changes page.

3.8 Viewing All Sessions

Use this page to view all existing sessions within the Oracle Service Bus Administration Console. You can view these sessions if you are currently in a session or outside a session.

You can view all sessions only if you are using the Administrator role. For more information, see "Configuring Administrative Security" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Service Bus.

  1. Click View All Sessions under Change Center. For each existing session, the View All Sessions page displays the information shown in Table 3-5.

    Table 3-5 Session Details

    Property Description

    Session Name

    The name of the session. The name is a link to the session.

    User

    The name of the user who created the session.

    Creation Time

    The date and time the session was created.

    Last Modified

    The date and time a change was last made during the session.

    # of Objects Modified

    The number of objects that have been changed during the session.


  2. To switch to another session, click the link in the Session Name column for that session.

    Note:

    The same user logged in with multiple browsers is not supported. It causes unpredictable behavior in the Administration Console.

3.9 Viewing and Resolving Conflicts

Use this page to view diagnostic messages about errors in your configuration, and to view and resolve conflicts between changes made in your session and other activated sessions. The view conflicts link also displays the number of live conflicts in the session.

Viewing Conflicts

  1. Click View Conflicts under Change Center. The View Conflicts page can display any or all of the following sets of information depending on the nature of the conflicts:

    • Errors (an Error icon denotes non-committable, critical conflicts)—inform you of critical conflicts within your configuration. You cannot commit your changes without resolving the conflicts. See Table 3-6 and the next topic, "Resolving Conflicts."

    • Concurrent Updates (a Warning icon denotes committable, non-critical conflicts)—warn you about incompatible changes with other activated sessions. See Table 3-7.

    • Informational Messages (a Warning icon denotes committable, non-critical conflicts)—inform you of any non-critical conflicts within your configuration.

    Table 3-6 Errors

    Property Description

    Name

    The resource to which the error message refers. The name is a link to that resource.

    Path

    The project and folder in which the resource resides.

    Resource Type

    The resource type.

    Messages

    A description of the conflict. To resolve the conflict, see "Resolving Conflicts" in the following section.


  2. To display details of a specific conflict, click the link in the Name column for that conflict.

    If the object to which you make changes in a session has changed in the runtime since you began the edit of the current session, the View Conflicts page displays the information shown in Table 3-7.

Table 3-7 Concurrent Updates

Property Description

Name

The resource in conflict. The name is a link to that resource.

Your Changes

A description of the changes you made to this object in your session.

Other's Changes

A description of the changes another user made to this object in their session.

Synchronize

Click the Synchronize icon to return this object to the state in which it is saved in the runtime.


Resolving Conflicts

To resolve a conflict, use the information provided in the Messages column (as described in Table 3-6) to understand the problem, and then edit the object that is causing the conflict to fix the problem.

For the scenario in which you have a concurrent update conflict—that is, a conflict that occurs if a resource is modified in the current session that has already been modified and activated by another session (as described in Table 3-7), you can resolve the conflict in one of two ways:

  • Click Activate under Change Center. This saves your changes to the runtime, which means you override changes that are deployed to core data by a previous session activation. In other words, the changes saved by the other user in another session are overwritten by your changes in this session.

  • Click the Synchronize icon in the Synchronize column of the table (as described in Table 3-7). This action restores this object, in this session, to the state in which it was saved in the runtime.