Forms work flow development

[Ed_Taylor]

Is there a limit to the number of process/forms that can be developed simultaneously?

[AdamShaneHyland]

I see, you referring to Configuration Migration (Community Forum).  With this utility it is possible to create linked systems where your create a Test Environment from your Production Environment and then migrate configurations back to Production once completed.  While this may work for you, there are some caveats which you should be aware of before making the decision to build all development on this configuration.  First off, once you create a link between Test and Prod you will not be able to make changes to Prod until 1) you migrated back from Test or 2) you broke the link between the two systems.  Also, once you migrate back, you break the link between the two systems.  This means that you will have to create a new linked Test environment each time you migrate your configuration from Test to Prod.  The same would be true between any other ancillary linked environments.   I would recommend reading through the Exceptions to the Migration Process within the Configuration Migration Utility MRG (OnBase 13 MRG) to see if your current process will work based on the exceptions.

This is why your third party vendor is most likely recommending to do the changes manually.  There are other methods which allow for configuration changes to be migrated between multiple environments such as Workflow Export/Import (Workflow MRG).  If you own Workflow, it is possible to assign configuration to a "dummy" Workflow (ie a document type for example with all of the keywords, auto name strings, etc) which will allow for you to Export it from Test and Import it into Prod. 

I would recommend having a conversation with your first line of support.

Hope this helps.

[Ed_Taylor]

We were actually thinking about PRod to Quality then Quality to Test. In our environment our systems engineers do all deployments to production. Development staff does not have access to production. We were thing that this would be a way to allow our engineers to perform the production promotion without needing to train the entire engineering department on the details of the On-Base product. Can we setup a 2 way link between Prod and quality and quality and test?

[AdamShaneHyland]

Technically it is possible, though both Prod and QA would be locked while you work in your Test environment.  Once migrated back, you would have to recreate both your QA and Test environments for valid links between the systems.  As well, if you were to break the links between any of the systems, you would not be able to migrate back.

Take care.

[Ed_Taylor]

I think we would be ok with the environments locked until we promote the changes. That should help to enforce parity between the environments. One of my concerns is that since we are so new to the product we are hoping this will reduce configuration errors and there by reduce or prevent production outages and errors due to mishandled manual configuration changes. This kind of brings me back to my original issue/question. If we pursue this method of deployment does it limit the number of people that can develop new forms/processes? What happens if someone does the promotion manual as opposed to using the tool?

[AdamShaneHyland]

To answer your question, yes multiple people can work in the Test environment linked to QA, however if anyone migrated the changes back to QA then the link from Test to QA would be broken and you would have to create a new Test environment to continue your development.  Migrations can only be done once per created link.  Once the changes are migrated back the link is then broken.  This means that you would have to carefully orchestrate your development so that migration is only done once with all of the necessary changes.  This method does not well if you are looking to make a lot of small changes and then migrate them for testing... such as creating a new document type and keywords for a group of users.

Take care.