Using Source Control Management in Day to Day Repository Development

These topics describes typical scenarios that occur during day to day repository development.

This section contains the following topics:

Updating, Saving, and Checking In Changes for Repositories Under Source Control

After your MDS XML repository is set up under source control, follow these steps to update, save, and check in changes to your repository.

To update, save, and check in changes to your repository:

  1. Ensure that you have a local copy of your working MDS XML repository files that are under source control by issuing the appropriate commands in your SCM system. For example, for Subversion, you can issue the command svn info as shown in the following example text: 
    C:\myProj\repos>svn info
Path: .
Working Copy Root Path: C:\myProj\repos
URL: file:///C:/SVN/myProj/trunk/sample1
Repository Root: file:///C:/SVN/myProj
Repository UUID: 6b995c92-3ec0-fa4b-9d58-c98e54f41792
Revision: 3
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: joe_user
Last Changed Rev: 2
Last Changed Date: 2011-11-19 15:20:42 -0600 (Sat, 19 Nov 2011)
  2. Open your MDS XML repository in the Administration Tool in offline mode. To do this, select File, then select Open, then select MDS XML.
  3. Select the root folder location for your MDS XML files and click OK.
  4. If this is the first time you have opened this MDS XML repository in the Administration Tool, you are prompted to specify whether this repository is a standalone MDS XML repository, or whether it is under source control. Select Use Source Control and click OK.

    This choice is saved for this repository. To view the status of this repository at any time, select Tools, then select Options, then select the Source Control tab.

  5. After you make changes to your repository, select File, then select Save, or click Save on the toolbar. The Administration Tool displays a list of changes.
  6. Click Yes to run the commands in the SCM system.

    After accepting the changes, you cannot cancel. Canceling the changes creates an inconsistent repository. You must continue the SCM commands execution.

    When the Administration Tool issues the SCM commands, the commands rearranged into the most optimal order.

  7. Check in the changes directly in your SCM system.

Handling Errors

Learn how to handle errors in the SCM system.

Sometimes errors, such as an expired label or network problem, occur when the Administration Tool delivers changes to the SCM system.

If errors occur, perform the following steps.

To handle errors:

  1. In the Administration Tool, select File, then select Save As to save the repository to a temporary location in RPD format or MDS XML format. Close the Administration Tool.

    Note:

    Saving to a binary RPD is the simplest option for transient problems like network errors, where you just need to try again later. Saving as MDS XML is required when some sort of work is required to fix the problem, such as merging conflicting changes.

  2. Take action to resolve the issue. For example, refresh an expired label or test and view a failed network connection.

    In the case of an expired label, you also need to merge the contents of the refreshed label with the temporary saved MDS XML repository. Use a third-party merge tool to do this.

    For detailed information about the MDS XML representation of repository objects so that you can successfully make merge decisions, see XML Schema Reference for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

  3. Open the saved repository in the Administration Tool.
  4. Select File, then select Source Control, then select Link to Source Control.
  5. Click Save to save changes from the saved repository into the MDS XML files under source control.

Steps 4 and 5 of this procedure cause the Administration Tool to keep memory objects loaded from the saved RPD file or MDS XML files, but to then consider them to belong to the source control MDS XML repository instead. When you click Save, the Administration Tool saves the memory objects to the source control repository.

Testing Repositories Under Source Control

During the course of repository development, you need to perform testing in online mode to validate your repository.

You can only load an Oracle BI repository in RPD format into the Oracle BI Server to make it available for queries. Because of this, you must save your development MDS XML repository in RPD format from time to time when you want to perform online testing. To do this, open your MDS XML repository in offline mode and select Save As, then select Repository.

See Making the Repository Available for Queries for more information about uploading repositories.

Viewing the Source Control Log

The Source Control Log window shows the commands that the Oracle Administration Tool issues to your SCM system.

It also shows any post-save text you specified in the Post-save comment tab of the SCM Configuration Editor.

By default, the Source Control Log window appears when SCM commands are being executed. Alternatively, you can select File, then select Source Control, then select View Logs to see the Source Control Log window.

You can choose the following options for this dialog:

  • Close when commands finish: Causes the log window to close automatically when commands are complete, unless errors occur.

  • Only show dialog when errors occur: Hides the window during SCM command execution unless errors occur. By default, the Source Control Log appears automatically when SCM commands are being executed unless this option is selected.

The text displayed in the Source Control Log is persistent until you close the repository. This means that all SCM command output is available for view, regardless of whether the dialog is open during individual operations.

The Source Control Log does have a 32K character limit. When the window buffer becomes full, then the oldest commands are removed from the Source Control Log display to make room for the latest command output. To see the full output, go to the Administration Tool log at:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/diagnostics/logs/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn/
user_name_NQSAdminTool.log

Note:

While SCM commands are being executed, the Close button is disabled until the SCM commands have finished or have stopped with an error, unless Only show dialog when errors occur has been selected.