Assemble Local Packs

A local pack is a record in the VCS Local Pack (sys_vcs_local_pack) table, that contains a specific set of records from the VCS Record (sys_vcs_record) table. Use it to associate VCS records with a specific pack according to the type of changes they refer to, and export them as a complete configuration set. When exporting local packs, you can move the development of the application configurations to a separate instance. To do so, export them as a SOP file and deploy the changes to another instance.

See the Configuration Packages article to learn more.

The exported configuration pack includes:

• Local Pack – compiles all VCS records related to a specific set of changes. These records can be implemented as one configuration pack in another instance. In other words, a local pack contains references to the records that should be changed, inserted, or deleted in the target instance.
• VCS Record – contains a record version.
• SOP file – a physical file in the SOP format. It contains all record versions from the local pack. Transfer and implement it in any other SimpleOne instance.

Assemble a local pack

A local pack configuration and export include the following stages:

1. Create of a new local pack to store some specific VCS records.
2. Collect VCS records in a local pack:
   • (optional) restore records 
   • (optional) move records to another pack 
3. (optional) Merge several local packs.
4. Export a SOP file.

Team development

In SimpleOne, you can export separate local packs and upload them one by one. Another option is to work as a team on one task. To do so, developers should do their part of work in separate local packs and then merge them into the final local pack. The following diagram describes the process:

To facilitate the team development process, do the following:

1. Each team member creates a separate local pack and works in it, collecting versions of the VCS records. The results of work on a specific task should go into a separate local pack.
2. When all the developers who work on the same task complete their local packs, these local packs must be merged into the final one.

Create a local pack 

To create a local pack, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to Configuration → Local Packs.
2. Click New and fill in the fields.
3. There are two ways to apply the changes and continue assembling a local pack:
   • Click Save. Then click Set current to switch the local pack in the Admin Preferences menu and start working on it.
   • Click Set current and Save to switch the local pack in the Admin Preferences menu, apply the changes and start working on it.

Manage VCS records

Configure the set of record versions in the VCS Records related list to manage the local pack content. Restore and move records to collect only the ones you need.

Restore a VCS record

To restore one of the previous record versions and make it current, click Restore Version. Restoring is only available for the VCS records with the cleared Is Current checkbox.

To restore a record version, complete the steps below:

1. Open the record you need.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the VCS Records tab.
3. Open the record version to restore.
4. Click Restore version.

After that, a new VCS record is created in the current local pack.

Remove a VCS record

The SimpleOne platform is designed in such a way that no record can be removed from the system. When you click Move to Default, they are moved to the default local pack. If one of your local packs contains a VCS record that was created accidentally or belongs to another configuration pack, you can remove it from this local pack.

To move a VCS record, do the following:

1. Navigate to Configuration → Local Packs.
2. Open the local pack containing the VCS record you need to move.
3. In the Related Lists area, select the VCS Records tab.
4. Select a record or records to be moved using the checkboxes and click Move to Default.
5. These records will be moved to the default local pack of the corresponding application.

As a result:

• All selected record versions are moved to the default pack.
• All record versions with the same Record ID as the selected ones are moved to the default pack, too. That is, all previous and current versions of the same record are moved.

Change a local pack for a VCS record

If a version was created in a wrong local pack by mistake (for example, in the default local pack), you can move it to the required local pack. To do so, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to Configuration → VCS Records.
2. Find a record to move. You can use list search or the condition builder.
3. Open the record you need.
4. Click the magnifier icon by the Local pack field and select the required local pack.
5. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Snapshots

Snapshots restore record versions in the following cases:

• a record has no current versions.
• the current version of a record is outdated – when the JSON Copy of this record version has a later date than the Updated at field of the record itself.

In the version control systems (VCS), a snapshot is a fixed state description of a system or database.

There are two ways to create a table snapshot:

• via table form (table configuration).
• with the SimpleVcs class of the server-side API.

Option 1

1. Navigate to System Settings → All Tables.
2. Using the search bar and/or a condition builder, find the table for which you need to create a snapshot, and navigate to it.
3. Open the hamburger menu and navigate to Configure → Table.
4. Click the Create VCS snapshot button at the right top. This button is only visible when the versioning for this table is on (the Is VCS enabled checkbox is selected).

Option 2

1. Navigate to System Settings → Server Scripts.
2. Write a script and call the createTableSnapshot(tableName) method in it.

The example script below makes snapshot of all versioned tables within the current application:

const table = new SimpleRecord('sys_db_table');
table.addQuery('is_vcs_enabled', true);
table.addQuery('sys_id', '!=', '999999999999999998'); // exclude REM
table.selectAttributes('name');
table.query();
while (table.next()) {
  const vcs = new SimpleVcs();
  const versionCount = vcs.createTableSnapshot(table.name);
  if (versionCount > 0) {
    ss.info(`${table.name.padStart(80, " ")}: ${versionCount} versions created`);
  }
}

Complete local packs

To complete local packs, complete the steps below:

1. Click on the gear icon  at the top right to enter the Admin Preferences menu.
2. Select your application in the Application choice list.
3. Click the icon  on the right to the Local Pack choice field.
4. Change the value of the State field to Completed.
5. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.
6. Click the Export local pack button to download the application, to install it in different instances. See the Configuration Packs article to learn more.