TEAM VCS Plugins support and extend the development side of the overall ALM solution.  The plugins provide a seamless integration of the development tasks into the overall release management and application delivery processes. They allow users to keep all the information related to a Release’s development – definition and content, promotion and application delivery rules – in one single logical TEAM repository. Keeping one single model for all ALM processes facilitates a more mature application delivery framework: more automation, better impact analysis, complete auditing, etc.

TEAM VCS supports development on the Integration Server components, Trading Networks components, Process Models, Portlets, and external files. It gives the developer the ability to browse, create, compare (perform ‘visual diff’) and restore all revisions available for a project as well as managing code branches (including code merges). There are multiple configuration options when it comes to using TEAM VCS plugins.

SHARED DEV ENVIRONMENT -   (If using webMethods Developer to develop on Integration Server)

The first configuration is when multiple developers work off of a shared development environment. The VCS Plugin is hosted on the Shared Development Integration Server. A Development Team Lead or TEAM Release Manager would setup a project for shared development. For the Integration Server, the VCS Plugin leverages the wM public API to configure listeners for the Developer lock/unlock events that occur on Integration Server. Queued by those events, it automatically saves a new Revision for that component in the TEAM Dev Repository. This all takes place in the background and is completely seamless to a developer.

When the development is complete, a Release Manager or Dev Team Leader uses the TEAM Server to compose a new release as well as Promote that Release. In CrossVista TEAM terminology, Promotion does not mean to just move code from one physical environment to another physical environment. It actually means to move the Release (within the TEAM Server) from one TEAM repository to another TEAM repository (which corresponds to another physical environment). As part of the promotion process, the entire release is automatically reconfigured for the target environment based on pre-defined promotion rules.

CONCURRENT DEVELOPMENT -   (If using webMethods Developer to develop on Integration Server)

A second configuration allows users to perform true concurrent development. In this scenario, each individual webMethods developer creates/modifies code on their own individual development sandbox environment. TEAM VCS web interface is used to “checkout” components from a TEAM Server repository as well as commit changes back to the TEAM Server. TEAM resolves all possible conflicts connected with the concurrent development model.

For instance, if concurrent changes had been made by different developers to the same component, then the developer performing the commit would have the option of merging the changes together based on a visual diff, going forward with their own changes, and/or creating a new branch of code for the changes. Trading Networks, ‘design time” Process Models, PRTs, and external files are handled by the TeamVCS plug-in in a similar manner.

SUPPORT FOR ECLIPSE-BASED DESIGNER FOR BPM AND MYWEBMETHODS

CrossVista provides complete support for your webMethods BPM projects via it’s Eclipse-based TEAM VCS Plugin.

Software AG’s stated strategic goal is to migrate all webMethods development tools to the Eclipse platform. The release of webMethods Designer 7.1 for BPM was a major step in that direction.  With the GA of webMethods 8.0, the Eclipse-based Designer will support all development on the webMethods Integration platform.  webMethods Designer for BPM has already replaced both webMethods Modeler and Workflow IDEs. Much like in the previous webMethods releases, the new Designer can create process models which are compiled and then deployed as a process runtime. The Designer also supports task development, including portlets, which are deployed to the MyWebMethods Server.  TEAM Server and the TeamVCS plugin for Designer support the complete lifecycle for these components as well as the operational management of the Process Runtime and MyWebMethods.

Designer Component Development Support

TEAM Server’s VCS plugin for Designer works in conjunction with the TEAM VCS plugin that supports developing on Integration Server, Trading Networks, Process Runtime, Process Models built using Modeler, and external files.  This means that TEAM can manage components developed with the Eclipse and non-Eclipse based IDEs. Both TeamVCS plugins can connect to the same central repository to allow you to version and manage your development artifacts and store them as part of a single TEAM project.  As Software AG migrates the other webMethods development tools to the Eclipse platform, CrossVista will continue to add support for the other Designer components.