Collaborative Development?

[dmaxwell]

Hello,

I've spent the last couple of days evaluating EA and as an experienced Rose user that is my basis for comparison. EA out-shines Rose in many areas with one exception (as far as I can tell). Collaborative use.

I've looked at the Save Package as XML features and the replication but I'm yet to be convinced of a usable collaborative environment.

To explain my point of view, Rose allows packages to be "contained" within a .cat file. and you can have many .cat files for a single model (.mdl) which is more or less equivalent to a .eap file from EA. Now with Rose, once the contents are in that .cat, I can set (via a version control tool) the .cat file to be read-only for all users except for the one who has checked it out. This prevents the user from unknowingly altering a file and therefore a package within the model.

By comparison, it seems to me that in EA saving a package to an xml file only creates a copy of the data. The user may continue to inadvertantly affect the contents of that package and when the .xml is re-loaded from another user, those changes will be blown away.

I'm interested in any ideas I can get on how get a better collaborative environment.

Here's what's on my plate to check next...

1. The SQL Server/MySQL capabilities in the 3.50 beta are interesting...could multiple users connect to that repository and control be through the databases locking capabilties? I cannot test this because I am not licensed and therefore cannot acces the beta. When is the beta intended to go production.

2. I've heard that the .eap can be placed on a shared  drive and that multiple users can access the file...I'm going to try this next.

[Chris_Reynolds]

In my opinion, Rose's method of loading the Rose model into memory suggest it was only designed as a single user tool and the checking-in and out of packages felt like a kludge.
By contrast, EA seems to be designed as a multi-user system from the ground up (as long as the model is on a shared drive).
Each user gets instant feedback on what another user is doing.
To stop the inadvertant changes to a diagram, you can lock it. It would be very nice to be able to lock a package too!
On the odd occasion when someone is restructuring some underlying plumbing, you could go for the replicate and synchronise option.
Having said all that, I have used Rose in a multi-user environment and know how clumsy it can be. I have not yet used EA in a multi-user environment so I haven't yet found the holes.
Having argued myself into a circle, I think I would be happier if I could check packages in and out too.

[kelly_sumrall]

In the new version, you will be able to lock elements (package being an element).  There are four lock levels:

1. No Lock. Do not lock this element - clear any existing lock  
 
 2. Full lock. Lock this element so no-one can edit it  
 
 3. User lock. Lock this element so only the locking user may make further edits  
 
 4. Group lock. Lock this element so any member of the group specified may update the lement - but others are excluded  
 

I think this is a bit flag in the underlying tables that disable the OK button in the Element Dialog.

Early testing seems to show that you have to touch each element you want locked, ie locking a package does not lock the package elements.  This will surely be changed as the current bugs are worked out.  I have not tested this in a collaborative environment yet, but it does look very promising.

[Dana Maxwell]

Hi All,

Repling to myself...after having tested the shared file option I'm convinced that it is an acceptable alternative. I will be looking forward to the 3.5 production release, it's user of SQL Server/MySQL looks promising.

Thanks for your input...

Dana

[frank]

I have just started to use EA, and have not looked at any of the betas.  I get the impression from this thread that 3.5 will allow models to be stored in MySQL databases.  Will there be a mechanism to allow work to carry on while away from the database (travelling with Laptop fpor example) and changes to be integrated on return?

Also, how stable are EA betas in general?  Are they usable in a production environment?

Frank.

[andlil]

Hi !

I have tested the Beta and at the moment I think it is not
usable. It is to unstable. I have created a new database and
I imported an old model into the mySQL database. So far
it seems to work (with some problems like duplicated classes) but when I then try to create new packages/diagrams the problem starts. The project browser is not always updated with the new package/diagram (I have to restart EA to get the browser updated). Reverse engineering does not work. I got some strange odbc error and the application crashes. I have tested the same proceedure with the beta but without using mySQL and then it seems to work so I think there is a bit work left for the Sparx guys before we can using EA with mySQL.

I have not tested it with SQLServer maybe it works better.

/Anders

[gsparks]

Hi,

We will be releasing version 3.50 hopefully today or tomorrow. I am interested in your comments regarding problems with MySQL... if you have an old model that you believe has problems, is there any chance you can send it in for trialling? I have fixed a major problem with MySQL in the last few days, which related to upgrading .EAP files which had Replication enabled in the past. With this out of the way I know of no bugs/issues with MySQL - using the recommended version 4.02 or higher with the latest ODBC drivers.

Could you please advise if you still have a problem here once you have build 573 or higher of EA.

You can email any example model files to [email protected]

Thanks for the feedback,

Geoff Sparks