This chapter provides information about storing the resources, contained in the Developer Tools workspace, in a version control system (VCS). This enables you to share the resources in your Developer Tools workspace with other developers.
This chapter contains the following sections:
Version control systems (VCS) provide you with the ability to create source code repositories. A VCS can provide advanced tools for versioning, branching, and managing source files. The file system structure in which the Developer Tools workspace stores WebCenter Sites resources enables those resources to be stored on any VCS and enables complete CM sites to be tracked in a VCS.
The Developer Tools workspace is located in the src folder of the Eclipse project. This folder can be accessed directly from the WebCenter Sites installation directory (under export/envision/cs_workspace/src). To copy the content of your Developer Tools workspace folder to a VCS, you must first determine which VCS you wish to use. Then, check-in the resources stored in the Developer Tools workspace to the VCS. The VCS you choose to use, determines the steps you must take to check resources in from the Eclipse IDE.
In some cases Eclipse supports the VCS you choose to use by providing a plug-in which lets you check resources into the VCS directly from Eclipse. For example, if you use the Subversion repository to store the content of your Developer Tools workspace, the Eclipse IDE supports the Subclipse plug-in. Therefore, you can check resources into the Subversion directory directly from the Eclipse IDE.
The Developer Tools workspace stores all resources as one or more files, depending on the type of resource. If you check a resource into a VCS, you must also check-in all associated files of that resource. For example, an asset that contains attached documents (such as a PDF) is represented by a metadata file (.main.xml) and the associated document file(s). All associated files of the asset must be checked in to the VCS. Otherwise, the check-in fails. For a detailed description of the Developer Tools workspace layout and for information about how resources are mapped to workspace files, see Chapter 57, "Developer Tools: Workspaces."
Note:
Checking data into a VCS from the Developer Tools workspace does not require an extensive understanding of the Developer Tools workspace file structure. Instead, most VCS clients detect incremental changes to the Developer Tools workspace folder and indicate those changes during a VCS commit operation.
When you check WebCenter Sites resources into a VCS from your Developer Tools workspace, you are able to exchange those resources with other developers and track changes to those resources over time. The following is an example of a development team using a VCS to share WebCenter Sites resources:
Developer A creates a resource in WebCenter Sites and exports it to the Developer Tools workspace. Developer A then checks that resource into a VCS. From the VCS, Developer B can then check-out the resource to his own Developer Tools workspace. This developer can now modify the resource and then check the changes back into the VCS. Developer A, as well as the rest of the development team, can now see the changes made to the resource from the VCS. This enables the members of the development team to synchronize their Developer Tools workspaces with the most recent changes made to the resource. Additional developers can join the group by checking-out resources from the VCS into their own, respective Developer Tools workspaces. As the project advances, the cycle of adding and modifying resources continues.
Note:
WebCenter Sites provides a revision tracking system for resources that are kept within a given WebCenter Sites instance. The WebCenter Sites revision tracking system cannot be integrated with a VCS.