NEMUG Newsletter

April, 2004, Articles

• From Under The Chair
• March Meeting: "VCm Software Configuration Management"

From Under the Chair

As a lame duck, I thought I would get together a list of upcoming events and topics, so we can move forward into the new term. In the next year we plan to explore the worlds that M and related languages are fast becoming, but we also hope to spend some time looking back at some of the anniversaries of major MUMPS milestones.

• At the upcoming SATURDAY SCHOOL, scheduled for May 8, and taking place at the Intersystems office on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, we will continue our work with the Northwind database, and set up a web-based user interface using CSP pages. The leader will again be Joel Solon of InterSystems. Please send email to Ben Hurley (bhurley1@partners.org) to sign up for this event.
• If you haven't taken advantage of our self-subscribing (and unsubscribing) email list now is a good time. Go to http://mail.intersystems.com/mailman/listinfo/nemug-news
• May 11th meeting, come vote in our elections and hear a recap of what happened at Intersystems DEVCON. If you want to get a preview, check the site.
• Upcoming events, reception planned to recognize M anniversaries. Let' get together and celebrate the past and explore the future
• Upcoming topics: Tools to use with M, like Dreamweaver and Crystal Reports, Recap Caché Server Pages, follow up on the Saturday school, Sanchez or Graystone GT.M at sourceforge.net, update on HIPPA, Partners Care Group program. WE could explore wireless communication, PCL to PDF file conversion, SQL to Caché database, M job market review, index mapping, defense department programming and many more. If you have contacts or ideas, let us know!
• Help us find contacts for a meeting on intellectual property rights from a legal standpoint. Does know a of lawyer who could help us explore this important topic? Please let me (at heidipl48@aol.com) or another board member know.

We look forward to seeing you Saturday May 8th and Tuesday evening May 11th.

Heidi Pape Laird, Vice Chair

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March Meeting: NEMUG Business "VCm Software Configuration Management"

Marilyn Paterno chaired the meeting for NEMUG.

Nominations For NEMUG Officers And Board Members

The meeting was started with the announcement that the election of NEMUG Officers and Board Members will take place in the upcoming May 2004 meeting.

The nominating committee ( Joe Crisafulli and Bob Macauley ) requested nominations from the floor. Nominations may also be emailed to the nominating committee. The current proposed slate of candidates is shown below.

Current Proposed Slate Of NEMUG Officers And Board Members

Saturday School - May 8, 2004

Ben Hurley announced that a NEMUG Saturday School will take place on May 8, 2004 at Intersystems' office in Cambridge, MA. The subject will be "Learn How To Use Caché Server Pages". Joel Solon, Senior Instructor for Intersystems Educational Services, will be the speaker/instructor. Those interested in signing up should email Ben Hurley at bhurley1@partners.org.

Drawing

Board member Anthony Pilozzi performed the drawing for the new DVD player. Anthony used his Caché web services demo on his laptop for the drawing. The drawing pool was the NEMUG email list.

The objectivity of the drawing was "guaranteed" by the demo's use of a web service from the web site www.random.org which, given a range of numbers to select from, returns a random number selected from that range. A round of laughter occurred when the first name, Aviel Klausner, NEMUG board member and InterSystems employee, was drawn. Unfortunately for Aviel, NEMUG board members were not eligible for the drawing. The next name selected was Bill Ortiz of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. Bill was the official winner of the drawing and the DVD player.

VCm Software Configuration Management - Partners Healthcare Use

Presented by Larry Williams, Lead System Designer, Partners Healthcare

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

VC/m is a complete version control, configuration management and process control system, designed with Caché and M installations in mind.

• Version Control: each previous version of the code or file is stored in a central library so that it is always available for reference and comparison.
• Configuration Management: controls which version of each piece of code is in each location. Two or more locations can be kept exactly parallel. Allows clear distinctions to be drawn between development, test and live locations.
• Process Control: controls who can move which items to where and in what circumstances. It makes it much easier for all employees to follow your company procedures.

VC/m eliminates concerns over which version of code is in which location, where to find the latest source and whether other developers are working on the same code at the same time.

VC/m assures that the right version of each item is included in a software release. Reporting facilities enable you to analyze work in progress and monitor the progress of each project against its deadline.

The VC/m configuration management procedures are fully configurable so that each installation can be uniquely tailored to match a company's requirements.

VC/m runs on Windows, UNIX /Linux and OpenVMS platforms.

PRESENTATION

The originally scheduled speaker, Kate Schell of Jacquard Systems Research, a U.S. distributor of George James Software, had to cancel due to an injury. With about two days notice, Larry Williams of Partners Healthcare graciously agreed to handle the complete presentation of VCm as it is used at Partners Healthcare.

Larry demostrated the complete process of using VCm to migrate a component through Partners development cycle using the VCm web interface. This process is outlined below.

1. Checkout from Master Library
   A component is either checked out from the Master Library or a new component is created. The component is modified and tested on the development platform. The act of creating a new component marks the component as checked out and available for modification. Only components that are checked out can be modified
2. Component Check In
   The component is checked into the Master Library. Automatically, a copy of the component is added to the Visual SourceSafe Library and the QA Library. The component is then marked as Ready for QA Testing (RFQ). At this point the component is NOT on the QA platform. It just lives inside of the QA Library.
3. Transfer to Ready for QA
   Once the component has been checked in, it must be transferred from the Library to the Ready for QA location.
4. Transfer to QA Testing
   The component is transferred to the QA Testing location. This forces VCm to place a copy of the component onto the QA platform. Depending on the component type it is either placed in the appropriate namespace or it is copied to the appropriate directory on the QA web server.
5. Transfer to Ready for Production
   The component is marked as Passed by transferring the component from the QA Testing location to the Passed QA location. Automatically, a copy of the Testing location to the Passed QA location. Automatically, a copy of the component moves to the RFP or Ready for Production Location. At this point the component is still NOT on the production platform. Its status is just marked as Ready for Production.
6. Distribute to Production
   The component is finally distributed to production by transferring the component from the Ready for Production location to the Production Library. A copy is automatically moved to the appropriate production namespace. Web components are automatically copied to each of the three production web servers.

Partners' VCm is configured to handle Change Requests. Change requests are used to group VCm objects together so they can be associated a specific change. There are typically two types of change requests. The first type is associated with bug fixes and the second type is associated with new development. One of the features of change requests is the ability to migrate components via their associated change request. This greatly simplifies the process of migrating a large number of components simultaneously.

References:

Information for the Product Overview section was taken from the George James Software Company website, www.GeorgeJames.com. Information for the Presentation section was taken from Partners Healthcare FAQ 400 authored by James Tinsman.

NEMUG would like to thank Larry for a well prepared comprehensive presentation.

NEMUG wishes Kate Schell a speedy, complete recovery from her injury and looks forward to having her speak at a future NEMUG meeting.

~ submitted by Ben Hurley

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