METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR UTILIZING CHANGE PACKAGES
Systems and methods described herein may generate a change package comprising one or more changes to a configuration of a segment. The change package may comprise a separate entry for each segment. Each entry may comprise each change associated with the respective segment.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/446,214 filed Jul. 29, 2014, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/716,638, filed Dec. 17, 2012 (now Abandoned), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/894,697 filed Jul. 19, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,437,722 issued Oct. 14, 2008), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/894,964 filed Jul. 19, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,038 issued Nov. 3, 2009), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/001,710 filed Dec. 12, 2007 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,341,590 issued Dec. 25, 2012), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/551,923 filed Sep. 1, 2009 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,473,893 issued Jun. 25, 2013), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/001,708 filed Dec. 12, 2007 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,548,967 issued Oct. 1, 2013), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/059,529 filed Mar. 31, 2008 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,667,465 issued Mar. 4, 2014). All of the foregoing are incorporated by reference in their entireties.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSSystems and methods described herein may enable creation and modification of change packages for software development environments. Such environments may include configuration management systems using change packages to track changes to a project and allow those changes to be replicated, augmented, reverted, etc.
Table 1 is an example of a basic change package including two software component versions. Each pair of software component head and basis versions may represent a history of changes to an issue resolution that completes a work item. In table 1, the work item/issue no. may be an identifier (ID) of a work item (e.g., a change request). The element ID may be an identifier of an element (e.g., a file or directory) in the system which may provide a unique ID for every file or directory in the system. For example, when a new file is added, it may be assigned a unique element ID number. Therefore if the name of the file changes, or it is moved to another directory, or other changes are made, the element ID number may allow it to be identified and/or tracked. Every action that happens in the system may be given a sequential transaction number. The trans column may include a beginning transaction number, and the trans_end column may include an end transaction number, indicating a series of transactions for which the change package information represented in the table row for the work item is valid. The head version may be the element version that is included in a change package, and the basis version may be the prior direct ancestor version of the head version. A single change in the change package may be denoted by a content change between the basis version and the head version.
As will be described in greater detail below, systems and methods presented herein may enable development and use of change packages such as that of Table 1 and other change packages with additional features. For example, change packages may allow for discrete changes and multiple tasks to be done at the same time without keeping separate records. Also, logical changes may be tracked and inserted in multiple places so that a new change package may not be required every time the same logical change is applied.
Systems and methods described herein may comprise one or more computers, which may also be referred to as processors. A computer may be any programmable machine or machines capable of performing arithmetic and/or logical operations. In some embodiments, computers may comprise processors, memories, data storage devices, and/or other commonly known or novel components. These components may be connected physically or through network or wireless links. Computers may also comprise software which may direct the operations of the aforementioned components. Computers may be referred to with terms that are commonly used by those of ordinary skill in the relevant arts, such as servers, PCs, mobile devices, routers, switches, data centers, distributed computers, and other terms. Computers may facilitate communications between users and/or other computers, may provide databases, may perform analysis and/or transformation of data, and/or perform other functions. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill that those terms used herein are interchangeable, and any computer capable of performing the described functions may be used.
Computers may be linked to one another via a network or networks. A network may be any plurality of completely or partially interconnected computers wherein some or all of the computers are able to communicate with one another. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill that connections between computers may be wired in some cases (e.g., via Ethernet, coaxial, optical, or other wired connection) or may be wireless (e.g., via Wi-Fi, WiMax, or other wireless connection). Connections between computers may use any protocols, including connection oriented protocols such as TCP or connectionless protocols such as UDP. Any connection through which at least two computers may exchange data can be the basis of a network.
The augmented data structure may provide one entry for each of the software component versions included in the change package. Each entry may include a software component ID, a head version specification, a basis version specification, the transaction number with which the entry was recorded, and the transaction number for which this particular entry expires, as discussed above.
The data structure may also enable searches for change packages that contain a particular software component version in a software development branch, change packages that are dependent on one another due to having a common software component version, change packages that are incomplete due to a missing software component version that is not the starting version, etc. An expired entry may not contribute to the contents of a change package if a query is performed at a transaction level that is greater than the entry's expiration transaction. This feature may provide historical reporting of a change package.
Change package variants may also be generated and applied by the system 100. Code changes in a change package may be used for a different branch of development. Changes may be derived from one branch where a fix was originally made to a branch that also needs the same fix by means of patching or merging, rather than making the changes from scratch in the other branch. Creating a variant of the original change package for the branch in which the fix was originally made may make it possible to apply the variant (and thus the same changes) to other branches. Change package variants may eliminate the duplication of work in creating and tracking the same work items that may otherwise be required in multiple development branches requiring the same change. Table 3 illustrates an example augmented data structure including a change package variant number:
In table 3, issue 1001 is the original change package. Patching issue 1001 to a workspace with ID 320 may create patched version 320/2 and variant 1 of issue 1001. Similarly, merging issue 1001 into a workspace with ID 120 may create merged version 120/6 and variant 2 of issue 1001. A change package variant may also be created to provide the same effect even if patching or merging is not required. In such a use case, the change package variant may have specialized changes in addition to common versions shared with the original change package.
A development stream may contain element versions that are parts of one or more variants from the same change package. For example,
As noted above, a change package may be amended after its creation. When a stream contains more than one variant for the same change package, an appropriate variant to amend may be chosen so that the integrity and completeness of the change package may be preserved.
Change packages may be patched from one stream (a source stream) to another (a destination stream). Patching a change package from a stream may include the use of all element versions contained in the stream that are part of the change package from all variants.
When an element has multiple discrete segments, each contiguous segment may be patched separately in one atomic operation. In such compound patch operations, multiple patch ancestries of an element may be recorded in the database 120. Segments may be patched as described above in ascending order in time (older segments before newer segments) to ensure that no changes are missed.
Streams may also be merged together.
Change packages may be reverted, allowing changes to be undone.
Reverting a change package with multiple discrete element segments may revert segments in descending order in time (newer segments may be reverted before older segments) to ensure that no changes are missed. As with the patch operation, revert of a change package (including all element segments) may be an atomic operation.
Displaying delta (diffs) between a starting version and a basis version of an element segment may provide a way for a user to inspect the code changes in a change package. When an element in a change package has multiple discrete segments, the user may also wish to see the overall changes or composite diffs of the change package.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope. In fact, after reading the above description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement alternative embodiments.
In addition, it should be understood that any figures which highlight the functionality and advantages are presented for example purposes only. The disclosed methodology and system are each sufficiently flexible and configurable such that they may be utilized in ways other than that shown.
Although the term “at least one” may often be used in the specification, claims and drawings, the terms “a”, “an”, “the”, “said”, etc. also signify “at least one” or “the at least one” in the specification, claims and drawings.
In addition, the terms “comprising”, “including”, etc. signify “including, but not limited to” in the specification, claims and drawings.
Finally, it is the applicant's intent that only claims that include the express language “means for” or “step for” be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6. Claims that do not expressly include the phrase “means for” or “step for” are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6.
Claims
1. A method comprising:
- performing processing associated with receiving, with an editor module in communication with a processor, a first change to a configuration associated with a first segment;
- performing processing associated with applying, with the editor module, the first change;
- performing processing associated with receiving, with the editor module, a second change to the configuration associated with a second segment;
- performing processing associated with applying, with the editor module, the second change;
- performing processing associated with generating, with a tracking module in communication with the processor, a change package comprising the first change and the second change, the change package comprising a separate entry for each segment, each entry including each change associated with the respective segment; and
- performing processing associated with storing, with the tracking module, the change package in a database.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change package comprises a software component ID, a head version specification, a basis version specification, a transaction number, or an expiration, or a combination thereof.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
- performing processing associated with identifying, with a variance module in communication with the processor, a logical change associated with the change package; and
- performing processing associated with creating, with the variance module, a change package variant comprising the logical change.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing processing associated with applying, with the editor module, the change package variant to a second configuration.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the applying comprises performing processing associated with selecting, with the editor module, the change package variant from among a plurality of change package variants within the configuration, the change package variant being a most recent of the plurality of change package variants within the configuration.
6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
- performing processing associated with analyzing, with a merging module in communication with the processor, a second configuration to identify a change necessary before applying the change package variant;
- performing processing associated with changing, with the merging module, the second configuration according to the identified changes; and
- performing processing associated with applying, with the editor module, the change package variant to the second configuration.
7. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing processing associated with analyzing, with the variance module, a second configuration to determine whether it is compatible with the change package variant.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the analysis includes determining whether the second configuration includes every element required to apply the change package variant.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein:
- when the second configuration is compatible, performing processing associated with applying, with the editor module, the change package variant to the second configuration; and
- when the second configuration is not compatible, the change package variant is not applied.
10. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing processing associated with creating, with a patching module in communication with the processor, a patch comprising the change package variant.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing processing associated with reverting, with a reverting module in communication with the processor, the first change or the second change.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
- performing processing associated with generating, with a diffing module in communication with the processor, a comparison of at least two configuration versions; and
- performing processing associated with displaying, with the diffing module, the comparison on a display.
13. A system comprising:
- a database;
- a processor in communication with the database;
- an editor module in communication with the processor, the editor module configured to: perform processing associated with receiving a first change to a configuration associated with a first segment; perform processing associated with applying the first change; performing processing associated with receiving a second change to the configuration associated with a second segment; and perform processing associated with applying the second change; and
- a tracking module in communication with the processor, the tracking module configured to: perform processing associated with generating a change package comprising the first change and the second change, the change package comprising a separate entry for each segment, each entry including each change associated with the respective segment; and perform processing associated with storing the change package in a database.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the change package comprises a software component ID, a head version specification, a basis version specification, a transaction number, or an expiration, or a combination thereof.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 4, 2016
Publication Date: Jun 2, 2016
Inventors: Chia-Sheng Isaac CHOU (Carlisle, MA), Michael Jacques BOOKER (Watertown, MA)
Application Number: 15/015,659