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Please note : This help page is not for the latest version of Enterprise Architect. The latest help can be found here.

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Walkthrough: DevOps Integration

This walkthrough helps you to set up and use the Pro Cloud Server's DevOps/Team Foundation Server integration.

Note, in 2019 Microsoft's Team Foundation Server was renamed to Azure DevOps. More specifically, the cloud hosted Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) was renamed to Azure DevOps Services, and on-premises Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) was renamed to Azure DevOps Server.

The Pro Cloud Server integration is compatible with Azure DevOps (both cloud hosted and on-premises) and Team Foundation Server (TFS). This walkthrough will primarily use the current name 'DevOps', however within the Pro Cloud Server and Enterprise Architect, the plugin will often be referred to as Team Foundation Server or TFS.

Using the integration with DevOps you can:

  • Link Enterprise Architect elements with their counterparts in DevOps
  • Create Enterprise Architect elements based on DevOps items
  • Synchronize changes between Enterprise Architect and DevOps, as and when needed
  • Perform a traceability analysis

Prerequisites

In order to set up integration between DevOps and Enterprise Architect, you must first:

  • Be using a licensed installation of Pro Cloud Server with the Integration Plug-ins component
  • Select the 'Enable Pro Features (OSLC, WebEA and Integration)' option in the Pro Cloud Server configuration for each Database Manager System hosting your Enterprise Architect models
  • Have network access between the PCS server and DevOps
  • Have user credentials to access the external data
  • Be using Enterprise Architect Corporate, Unified or Ultimate edition v14 or later

We will assume that the Integration Server and the DevOps Integration Plug-in are to run on the same machine as the Pro Cloud Server

Define DevOps Queries

The DevOps integration allows access to work items via queries which have been defined in DevOps. You can view your existing queries and create new ones as described below.

  1. Login to Azure DevOps and select your Project.
  2. From the left panel select 'Boards', then 'Queries'.
  3. To view all queries which will be accessible to the DevOps integration click on 'All'. The Queries will be grouped into 'My Queries' and 'Shared Queries'.
  4. A new query can be created using the 'New query' button.
  5. After adjusting the query's filter options, click on the 'Save query' button to save the query.

Identify DevOps to Pro Cloud Server and Enterprise Architect

Work through these steps:

  1. Double-click on the 'Pro Cloud Config' Desktop icon to open the Pro Cloud Config Client window.
  2. Select the 'Integration' tab and select the 'Enable Integrations' checkbox. In the 'Port' field type the number of the Port the Integration Server is listening on for requests from the Pro Cloud Server.
  3. Click on the Add button. The 'Add Data Provider' dialog displays.
  4. Select the 'Enabled' checkbox.
  5. In the 'Name' field, type an appropriate connection name, such as 'DevOps'.
  6. In the 'Provider' field, click on the drop-down arrow and select 'Team Foundation Server'; this automatically adds 'tfs' to the 'Prefix' field as well.
  7. In the 'Integration Plugin' panel, in the 'Port' field, type the number of the Port that the Integration Server will use to communicate with the DevOps Plug-in.
  8. If you are using the Cloud-hosted 'Azure DevOps Services', fill in the Provider Server fields as shown:

    Protocol: https
    Server Name/IP: dev.azure.com
    Port: 443
    Base URL: Enter the DevOps organization name. This can be found at the end of your DevOps URL. For example, If your url is https://dev.azure.com/org1/, then in the 'Base URL' field you would enter 'org1'.
    User Name: Leave this field empty. Users will be prompted for credentials when using the integration within Enterprise Architect.
    Password: Leave this field empty.
    Create Items / Modify Items / Post Discussions: Enable these checkboxes as necessary, to allow users of the DevOps Plug-in to create and/or update items and/or create Discussion posts in DevOps using Enterprise Architect.
    Ignore SSL Errors: Leave this option unchecked.



    If you are using an on-premises 'Azure DevOps Server' / TFS, fill in the Provider Server fields as shown:

    Protocol: Select http or https
    Server Name/IP: Enter your server name or IP address
    Port: Enter the Port number that DevOps/TFS is configured to use.
    Base URL: Enter the final component of your DevOps/TFS url (everything after the server name/Port). E.g. tfs/DefaultCollection
    User Name: Leave this field empty. Users will be prompted for their user name when using the integration within Enterprise Architect.
    Password: Leave this field empty. Users will be prompted for a password when using the integration within Enterprise Architect. In this case the 'password' refers a personal access token (PAT). Personal access tokens are created from within DevOps via the 'Settings | Personal access tokens' option. Refer to the DevOps documentation for details.
    If you prefer to set values in the 'User Name' and 'Password' fields, the values will be used in combination to access the data within DevOps; however, all current Enterprise Architect users of the DevOps installation will use the same set of credentials to read the external data.
    Create Items / Modify Items / Post Discussions: Enable these checkboxes as necessary, to allow users of the DevOps Plug-in to create and/or update items and/or create Discussion posts in DevOps using Enterprise Architect.
    Ignore SSL Errors: Leave this option unchecked.


    Note, the Protocol, Server, Port and Base URL fields are concatenated to make a web address; that is: <protocol>://<server>:<port>/baseURL (baseURL included if the field is not blank).
  9. You can leave other fields blank or set to their default values. Click on the OK button to complete the configuration. This returns you to the 'Integration' tab of the Pro Cloud Server Configuration Client window.

Identify Enterprise Architect models to DevOps

On the 'Integration' tab of the Pro Cloud Server Configuration Client window, you will now see:

  • On the lower left of the screen, the 'Data Providers' panel listing Team Foundation Server/DevOps as a data Provider
  • On the lower right of the screen, the ''DevOps' is bound to:' panel displaying a check list of the Enterprise Architect models from your Pro-enabled Database Manager(s)

You can either click on the checkbox against each Enterprise Architect model you want to bind to DevOps, or click on the to select all of them at once.

Click on the Exit button.

Restart the PCS Service to apply the changes you have made.

You can now go into one of your Enterprise Architect models and check the integration with DevOps.

Test the Integration

In Enterprise Architect open one of the models you have identified as being bound to DevOps.

  1. Select the ribbon option Specialize > Tools > System Integration.
  2. In the toolbar of the External Data window, click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the 'globe' icon.
  3. Select 'Team Foundation Server' from the list; this adds the provider to the breadcrumb trail in the toolbar.
  4. Click on 'DevOps' in the breadcrumb trail to display a list of DevOps providers that have been configured and bound to this model. If nothing is listed then no provider has been bound to this model.
  5. Click on one of the Projects which are defined in DevOps.
  6. Select either 'Shared Queries' or 'My queries'
  7. Select one of the defined queries to display all the items returned by that query in the list below.

(If you cannot see Team Foundation Server, the DevOps project/s or any defined queries, check through the procedures in this topic, or the broader and more detailed topics in the Integration Plug-ins section to see if there is a step you have missed or a prerequisite that is not satisfied. You can also check the Troubleshooting Help topic.)

Data Mapping

In order for DevOps and Enterprise Architect to smoothly exchange data items, you have to review and - where necessary - edit:

  • What type of DevOps item corresponds to which type of Enterprise Architect element, and
  • What property of a DevOps item corresponds to which property of an Enterprise Architect element.

These tasks are fully explained in the Configuration Help topic.

Review DevOps Data

When you tested the communication between Enterprise Architect and DevOps, on the External Data window, you opened the breadcrumb trail to show a list of DevOps projects, then selected either 'My Queries' or 'Shared Queries' and selected a query from the list. The work items are then listed in the body of the window.

If this list is too long, you can click on the 'Hamburger' icon in the window toolbar and select options such as:

  • 'Linked Items' to show only those DevOps items that are linked to Enterprise Architect elements
  • 'Items Linked to Current Context' to show only the DevOps items that are linked to the currently selected Enterprise Architect element or
  • 'Unlinked items' to show only those DevOps items that have not yet been linked to Enterprise Architect elements

Select the appropriate option, if necessary, and then explore the content of selected DevOps items. Each of the Properties window, Notes window and Inspector window have separate tabs or versions of the window to display any properties, notes and features (respectively) of the selected item. These are illustrated in the External Item Details Help topic.

Working with DevOps items and Enterprise Architect elements

Having created a working communication between Enterprise Architect and DevOps, you can:

  • Create a new element in Enterprise Architect linked to a DevOps item
  • Create a new DevOps item linked to an element in Enterprise Architect
  • Link an existing element in Enterprise Architect to a DevOps item
  • Update the DevOps item with changes to the Enterprise Architect element
  • Update the Enterprise Architect element with changes to the DevOps item
  • Update all linked Enterprise Architect elements with any changes to the DevOps items

These actions are all explained in the Linking Items Help topic.

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