Using EA with Database

[SwissSteve]

I was investigating the merits of using EA with a database repository and have a couple of questions which I hope someone who has gone down the same road can advice.

1.   If I use a DB to house the repository do we still have an EAP file?

2.   It was recommended to me to use a DB for the repository with Optimistic Locking to control multi user access.   If I went this approach what would happen when e.g. two users say are trying to add the same actors to different sequence diagrams?   With Subversion this would be controlled with the checkin and checkout?

3.   Am I right in assuming that with a DB approach, users do not need to use the Version Control features when working with EA?

I am happy if anyone can point me into some good documentaiton on this topic.

TIA

[Transition Technologies]

Hi,
You can find the partially answer for your questions in this topic:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1208977826
It's all about using Version Control and DB.

[JohnDoe]

>>>1.   If I use a DB to house the repository do we still have an EAP file?
No. Technically the EAP file is an access database (MDB file format) and can be opened with Microsoft Access. In your database you will import all these tables and you are done. Your users connect to the database and work the same way as opening the EAP. It is transparent.

>>> 2.   It was recommended to me to use a DB for the repository with Optimistic Locking to control multi user access.  
>>> If I went this approach what would happen when e.g. two users say are trying to add the same actors to different sequence diagrams?  
Last one overwrites the prior content. But you can use locking to avoid this scenario !

>>> With Subversion this would be controlled with the checkin and checkout?
EA has locks, which simluate this workflow.

>>> 3.   Am I right in assuming that with a DB approach, users do not need to use the Version Control features when working with EA?
 "Baselines" give your team the opportunity to trace changes between versions. Since this is a "built in" EA feature, you dont need an additional version system.

Just check the EA help file searching for "user security" and "baselines". There are two chapters dedicated to these topics !

Best wishes
Bernd

[Oliver F.]

I was investigating the merits of using EA with a database repository and have a couple of questions which I hope someone who has gone down the same road can advice.

Some things have already been answered but for the sake of completeness:


You can see the DBMS and EAP files a working repository of version controlled packages.
If you have version control then you can check out packages into the DBMS or EAP file the same way as you would check out a CVS or SVN tree to your local disk.

If you do not rely on version control, there is only one repository (either DBMS or EAP file) of course.

You can still transfer project data from DBMS to EAP and vice versa, however I have not tested whether this transfer will keep version control information or not.

So the storage of data into DBMS or EAP files is independent from the question about version control. It is just a method to keep the "local" repository.

Oliver

[SwissSteve]

Thanks for the infomation, will give it a try

[Dermot]

Hi,
There is a whitepaper that covers the pro's and con's of using either the Eap and DBMS or combos along with version control as well as usage across LANs/WANs.
The whitepaper is the Deployment Whitepaper availble from:
http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/resources/whitepapers/index.html

[SwissSteve]

thanks Dermot.   I just found that doc last night and a lot of other interestign papers as well.