8 articles about Solutions and ALM, in reading order.
Solutions and ALM
The whole path a change takes in Parsware: build it in Development, raise the solution's version, export one file, and import that same file into Test and then Production, where the new version replaces the old one. Plus the habits that keep the three environments in step.
Solutions and ALM
Every Parsware environment keeps its records in its own database schema. A table name can mean different things in two environments, a record in Test can never show up in Production, and a query aimed at the wrong environment fails instead of returning somebody else's rows.
Solutions and ALM
Creating a Parsware environment takes a name and a tier. The address is made from the name, the tier can't be changed later, and deleting the environment removes its schema, its solutions and everything that was built in it.
Solutions and ALM
A solution only carries what's in it. When something it needs was built somewhere else, the import into Test is refused. Dependencies shows what's missing, Add existing puts it in, and Remove from solution takes things out without deleting them.
Solutions and ALM
A managed solution doesn't overwrite the tables it touches. It adds a layer on top, so uninstalling it takes away exactly what it added: a table it brought, a column it put on Account, and nothing you built yourself.
Solutions and ALM
Two publishers' solutions can sit side by side in one environment, and one can build on the other. Parsware checks the order both ways: an import that needs a table the environment doesn't have is refused, and so is an uninstall that would take away a table another solution still uses.
Solutions and ALM
A solution can carry rows as well as tables. Each table's Seed data view decides which rows travel, and says what they are: configuration the solution needs, which every import brings, or demonstration data, which comes only when you ask for it, and never into Production.
Solutions and ALM
One solution, a different setting in every environment. The declaration of an environment variable travels with the solution; the value stays where it was set. We followed two variables from Development through two upgrades of Test and into Production, and watched what each import changed and what it left alone.
