Preparing your environment for team development

Continuous integration

Enables development in the following environment:

• Multiple development instances, each with its own database
  – AND –
• A central source control system for managing files

Allows developers to serialize the data of objects from the database into XML files on the file system. The files can then be added to a source control system and used to synchronize database data between team members along with standard project files.

Object locking

Locking is available when editing objects related to administration interface development, such as UI templates, transformations or email templates.

Usable in the following environments:

• Multiple development instances with a shared database
  – OR –
• Single instance used by multiple developers

Collisions can occur if multiple people edit the same object at the same time. To avoid overwriting of work, developers can lock objects for editing (check out) and unlock them (check in) after finishing. When an object is checked out, other developers cannot modify it.

Note: We strongly recommend setting up web farm synchronization for any collaborative environment with a shared database. Web farms ensure that all instances are always up-to-date by synchronizing cached content and settings.

External editing of code

Objects used for administration interface development contain code (for example layouts). The system allows you to store the code within the project’s file system in addition to the database and synchronize the changes. You can then edit the code in external editors and manage it using a source control system.

Note: This feature only manages code. Other object data and settings remain only in the database and are NOT represented in the file system.