Common Tasks: Working with Projects

Projects are the workspaces in which you create and edit your automation.

Deciding what is in the scope of each project is really up to the end user, but there are two strategies that are commonly used. The most common strategy is to have one large project that spans multiple environments (with each integrated business application in a particular environment represented by a Site). This is the easiest way to begin, especially where only a small group of developers or administrators are using the system to deploy and manage the applications. Another strategy is to have a separate project for each environment (e.g. a dev project, a qa project, and a stage project) and have each integrated business application within that environment represented by a Site. This highly segmented strategy can be a bit more cumbersome but is useful when you want to have formalized and very regimented processes for migrating applications between environments or when you have tight security concerns. For most situations, having one project that spans multiple environments is the easiest way to operate.

Adding a project is done from the Workbench Administration Page. You can get to the Administration page by clicking the Admin button on the Workbench's start page. You can get to the start page at any time by clicking on the ControlTier logo or the word "Workbench" in the upper left corner of any Workbench page.

Figure: Select the Admin button to go to the administration page

Figure: Select the Create Project button to create a new project

Enter the following details in the Add Project Dialogue in the Main Information Window:

• Project Name - Create a descriptive name for your project. Project name must be alpha-numeric characters only and spaces are not allowed. It is suggested that you capitalize the first letter of a Project Name but you may use any naming convention.
• Project Description - Enter a detailed description for your Project.
• Organization Name - This is an optional field for designating the group to which this Project belongs. This is purely for informational purposes and is not tied to access control or permissions.

Figure: Enter details for new project

Figure: Click the Archive Project button on the Workbench administration page.

Figure: Archive options

Choose if you would like the Archive saved to the WebDAV store or immediately downloaded to your workstation via your browser. If you chose to save to the WebDAV store, the Project Archive File (PAR file) will be saved as a timestamped file in the archive directory on the Workbench server's WebDAV store. Each project has its own directory in the archive directory. Each time you create a PAR using the option to save it to the WebDAV store it is timestamped and saved in its respective Project's directory.

Importing a Project is done by unarchiving a PAR file that is either located on the DAV share or is uploaded from your workstation through the browser.

Figure: Unarchive (Import) button

If you upload from your workstation you will have the option to overwrite an existing project of the same name (if it exists). The existing project is archived before it is overwritten. If you select a project on the DAV share you will have the option of selecting from multiple timestamped versions of the PAR (if multiple versions exists)

Figure: Unarchive (Import) options

Switching between currently loaded projects is done from the Workbench Administration Page. You can get to the Administration page by clicking the Admin button on the Workbench's start page. You can get to the start page at any time by clicking on the ControlTier logo or the word "Workbench" in the upper left corner of any Workbench page.

Figure: Use the drop down menu to select a project

Removing (Deleting) a Project from Workbench is done by selecting the Remove Project button from the admin menu while the Project you want to remove is the active project. There is a confirmation step before any action is taken. Before Workbench removes a project it automatically creates an archive of that project on the DAV share.

Figure: Select the Remove button from the admin menu