What is Patch management ?
Patch Management is a tool. It alleviates the process of porting application changes from one instance to other as the tool enables developers to track all changes made by a developer under a change request and allows him to download the changes as a patch file.It is a most reliable tool. To use Patch management you nedd to follow the following.
1. A developer should create a change request using the Change Request screen provided by the platform.
2. Once he has an open change request, he/she will be able to customize the pages and all the changes made are tracked under this change request.
3. Once all the changes are done, he/she can browse through a list of change requests and select one to prepare the patch . After clicking on prepare patch, The request to prepare the patch is processed and you will get a mail after patch is ready for download. Then click on 'Go to Patch Downloads' button.
4. There you click on the patch download link and download it.
5. He/She can then go to the target machine and upload the patch file.
6. As the patch file is uploaded, The request to process the patch is processed and you will get an email when the patch is processed. Then it will enable the 'View Changes' link. On clicking of this link, the release management tool lists all the changes made as part of the corresponding change requests that got added, what’s updated and what is deleted.
7. He/She can deploy the changes on to the target instance and the tool will update the platform schema of the target instance there by both the instance are in sync and render the same UI.
8.Before deploying the changes, the developer also has the option to ignore changes that he does not want to deploy
Note: Before you create a Change request you have to go to Navigation → Administration → Setup and enable the Patch Enable property.
How to create a Change Request ?
1. A developer should create a change request using the "Change Requests" screen provided by the platform.
Goto Navigation → Administration → Change Requests
2. Create a new Change Request with status as 'open', if you doesn't have an opened Change Request. Without Change Request you can not make the changes and create new things.
Here, Enter Change Request Name and Change Request Description. Click on 'Save' to create a Change Request.
Example:
Once a developer has an open change request, he/she will be able to customize the pages and all the changes made are tracked under this change request.
Can we create Multiple Change Request(s) ?
No, open Change Request is allowed only one per a Developer at a time.
How to close a Change Request ?
If you want to close the ChangeRequest,set status to close and save it. If you close the change request,tracking of all the changes made by this change request will be lost. So make sure that the changes respective to the change request is deployed or not.
Can we Close the Change Request without Deploying ?
Yes,You can close the Change Request without deploying but track of all changes made by a developer under that change request will be lost.
Can we make changes without a open Change Request ?
No, you will not allow to make the changes without a Change Request.Without Change Request you won't be able to
1. Customize the Page.
Example:
2. Create new Pages and Datasources.
Example: in Generate Screen From Table/View
3. Make Changes in following pages.Because without Change Request,the following pages will be readonly.
1. Datasource Objects.
2. Define Pages.
3. Datasource Object Mappings.
4. Roles
How to download a Patch ?
The patch download can be done in three ways. 1) By going to the Change Request and Enabling the change request patch, 2) By Downloading the page meta data, 3) By downloading the Roles
1) Change Request Enabling: To download the patch go to Administration → Developer → Change Requests
There you enable the check box for the change request that you want to download.
Now click on the 'Prepare Patch' button and specify the name for your patch and click on 'Save' button.
After clicking on 'Save' button, The process to prepare the patch is started and you will get an email after the patch is ready for download.
Once you are done with it click on Go to Patch downloads button.
You will be navigated to the patch request page.
Here you will be listed with all the patches. Now select your patch and download the patch by clicking on the download patch link.
2) By downloading the page metadata: To download the patch of a specific page, go to the page and now go to File → Administration → Download Page Metadata.
The page metadata patch will be downloaded and you will be directed to Patch request page.
Navigation → Developer → Download Page Metadata
3) By downloading the Roles: To download the patch for a specific role, go to Navigation → Administration → Roles.
Navigation →Administration → Roles
Now select the role and click on the download role button. Then you need to go to the Patch Request page and download the patch.
Can we select Multiple Change Request(s) to Download a Patch ?
No, you cannot select more than one change request to down load the patch as you will have only one change request open at a time.
How to Upload a Patch on Target Machine ?
To upload the patch, go to Navigation → Developer → Patch Management.
Click on the upload patch. Now a PopUp arises where you need to enter the patch name, description and attach the Patch.
Now click on prepare patch. The process starts and you will get an email as soon as the patch is processed.
Again login to the platform and go to the patch Management page and click on the 'View changes' link.
The Patch Management tool lists all the changes made as part of the corresponding change requests i.e what got added, what’s updated and what is deleted.
If you wish to ignore any changes that you made, you can ignore them by enabling the corresponding checkbox for that item and clicking on save.
Now click on the Deploy button and then the patch will start deploying.
Once the patch is deployed successfully, you will receive a mail .
Can we be able to Ignore Changes at the time of deploy ?
Yes, You can Ignore the changes.After uploading a patch file, click on "View Changes link" , then you will be able to ignore the changes. Select the changes, which you don't want to deploy, then enable the Ignore checkbox and click on save. The changes, which you have ignored, will not be deployed on other instance.
What will happen when two people are working on the same page and on same item?
2. If you get an error message as following, then create a change request (Goto "How to create a Change Request" in this document to create a Change Request).
or 
