Developing applications in a multi-developer environment

When working in a multi-developer environment, it is recommended that you follow these procedures to ensure that you do not override changes that other users made:

  • Each developer must log in to Workbench with a unique user ID.

  • Use the Check In/Check Out system to ensure that only one person at a time works on an asset and that the latest version of an asset is available to other users.

  • Synchronize your applications and assets before you check them out. Synchronizing copies the last check-in version of the application or asset from the server to your local computer. This procedure ensures that you are always editing the latest version of the application or asset.

  • Because Workbench does not support merging of multiple changes, make sure that only one user at a time edits the assets.

Synchronize the local version with the version in the repository

 Right-click the application or the asset and select Synchronize.

Checking in applications or assets

When you first create an application or an asset, it is created on your local computer. To make it available to other developers for editing or including in other applications, check the application or the asset into the server repository. You can check in individual or multiple applications or assets at the same time.

A warning dialog box is displayed when you attempt to check in an asset with modified process configuration parameters. Checking in an asset with modified configuration parameters can affect running process instances. Click Yes to continue with the check-in, or click No to cancel the check-in.

Also, you must check in the application to deploy it. (See Deploying applications).

Check in assets

 Use one of these methods to check in the assets:
  • Check in the application that contains the assets.

  • To check in a single asset, right-click the asset and select Check In. When prompted, click Yes to proceed with the check-in operation.

  • To check in the assets that are in a folder, right-click the folder and select Check In.

    • In the Check In Assets dialog box, you can select all assets to be checked in, some assets to be checked in, or none of the assets to be checked in. Click OK.

    • When prompted, click Yes to proceed with the check-in of the changed assets.

  • To check in multiple assets that are located in various parts of the application and/or in different applications, select the assets by using Ctrl+click or Shift+click, and then right-click one of the assets and select Check In. When prompted, click Yes to proceed with the check-in operation.

A status dialog box appears after the check-in operation is complete.

Check in applications

  1. Right-click an application version and select Check In. To check in multiple applications, use Ctrl+click to select the applications, and then right-click one of the selected applications and select Check In.

  2. (Optional) If the application contains the assets that are not checked in, select one of the following options:

    • Check In All Files: Workbench checks in all the assets.

    • Check In Selected Files: Workbench checks in only the assets that you explicitly select.

    • Check In None Of The Files: Workbench does not check in any assets.

  3. (Optional) In the list of the checked-out assets, select the assets to check in. Use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple assets.

Checking out applications or assets

To edit an application or an asset, check it out of the repository. A checked-out application or asset is available for editing by the user who checked it out.

If you want to check out an application or asset that another user has checked out, you can forcibly check it out. This action discards any changes that the other user made after their checkout.

Check out applications or assets

  1. Right-click an application or an asset and select Check Out. To check out multiple applications or assets, use Ctrl+click to select them, and then right-click one of the applications or assets and select Check Out.

  2. If another user has any of the assets checked out, select one of the following options:

    • Force Check Out On All Files: Workbench forces the checkout of all assets.

    • Force Check Out On Selected Files: Workbench forces the checkout only for the assets that you explicitly select.

    • Force Check Out On None Of The Files: Workbench does not force the checkout of any assets.

  3. (Optional) In the list of assets that another user checked out, select the assets to forcibly check out. Use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple assets.

Discarding the changes

After you check out an application or asset and edit it, if you need to discard the changes, use the Revert command to quickly return to its checked-out state. Using the Revert command for the application discards changes made to all its assets since the last checkout.

Note: The Revert command cannot be used to revert to a previous version of the asset.

Discard changes made to an asset:

 Right-click the asset and select Revert.

Viewing asset history

To view the history of asset revisions, use the History command; it displays the list of checked-in versions of the asset.

Review the history of an asset version:

 Right-click the asset and select History.

Managing user access to applications

You must have the Application Administrator role assigned to your LiveCycle user account in order to develop applications. In this role, you can assign limited access to the application development environment for users who have other roles assigned. You can permit other users to have the following type of access:

Read:
The user can view the application.

Delegate:
Although the user is not the Application Administrator, that user can extend read/write permissions to another user.

Write:
The user can modify the application and save the changes.

For example, if a contractor is assigned to your project, you can grant that person Read and Write permissions only for the applications that the person will be working on.

Assign access permissions for an application:

  1. In the Applications view, click Show Remote Resource  to view the list of applications on the server.

  2. Right-click the name of the application for which to configure user access and select Manage Access.

  3. Click Add and in the Select User(s) And Group(s) dialog box, specify how to search for the users:

    • To search by name, select User Name.

    • To search by the user’s or group’s email address, select Email.

  4. In the box, type all or part of the user name or email address and click Find. Type no characters in the box and click Find to retrieve a list of all users.

  5. In the Results pane, select a user or a group and click Add.

  6. Click OK to return to the Access Control dialog box.

  7. In the Users and Groups area, select a user or a group and, in the Permissions area, select the permissions to assign to that user or group.

  8. Repeat step 7 for every user or group for which to configure access to the application.

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