[Anthill-pro] RE: Workflow - looking for ideas

[Scott Leon]

Hi All,

I've worked with other build tools (i.e. cruisecontrol) and built build systems from scratch, but I've only just begun working with Anthill Pro.

First off, our development application setup directory structure in Perforce is unconventional.  We don't have one mainline, we have around 100 active mainlines.

It looks like this:

Application #1
            Main
            Rel1.1
            Rel1.2
Application #2
            Main
            Rel1.1
Etc.

In setting up a workflow, our application directory structure gave me (with Steve Boone's help) an idea.  Why not ask for the branch information (i.e. main, rel1.1, etc.) when kicking off the build.  We would still need to create client specs for each branch in Perforce (as far as I know), but it would help in keeping the clutter of having 100 applications, each having two, three, four, etc. branches down in Anthill Pro.

So this works, however, I see a few possible issues with this approach.

1)       When calling the deployment workflow for an application from a build life, where can I automatically grab the "branch" selected from the build.  It doesn't seem reasonable to me for me to ask a user to select a branch for kicking off a secondary process.  I know it can grab an Artifact without this information, but I:
a.       delete the old application directory in the deployment environment
b.      create a new application directory in the deployment environment
c.       grab the tar.gz from codestation and copy it to the new application directory in the deployment environment
d.      explode the tar.gz
e.       delete the just exploded tar.gz

f.        it would be great in steps "c" and "e" to be able to specify the complete tar.gz name (which includes the branch name).  Is it possible to get the first name of an artifact from the API?

2)       There's a feature in Anthill Pro that captures SCM changes since the last successful build, but in this model I'd like to capture the SCM changes since the last successful build for a specific branch.

There are probably several other scenarios that I haven't thought of yet, but I'd appreciate your ideas.

Thanks
Scott


Scott Leon
Business Applications
The MathWorks, Inc.
3 Apple Hill Drive
Natick, MA 01760
Phone: (508) 647-2010

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