What's New in 2.1

Module Builder helps you define the commands to manage the application deployment and adminstration tasks within your environment. Several new features were added to Module Builder in 2.1.

Command Workflow

Command workflows allow you to quickly combine commands into a single command enabling the construction of simple procedures that encapsulate a sequence of complex procedures. The process of defining a workflow is easy - simply choose the commands from the popup menu and add them to the Workflow list. Once added to the list, the commands can be re-ordered to reflect the needed sequence. Any kind of command can be added to a Workflow: Shell, Ant, even other Workflow commands.

Even sound implementations can fail due to an unforseen problem that occurs in the environment. Command Workflows have a built in configurable error handler that catches the error at the failed command and then executes the configured actions.

The error handler can execute several kinds of actions:

• Send a notification email: An email message along with contextual information and a dump of the execution messages can be sent helping the diagnostic process.
• Prompt user to continue or fail: The user can be presented with a specified message asking them if they want to continue the workflow inspite of the error.
• Execute command: A cleanup or recovery command can be executed and the workflow continued.

Resource editor

Module Builder generates the handlers for each defined command along with module property files. Many times it is desirable to store your own scripts and templates inside the module. Module Builder now includes a Resource Editor that allows you to manage all files within the module workspace. Users can upload their own files to the module via the web browser. Any file can be viewed and edited from the Resource Editor, as well.

Command Graphs

Commands within the module can now be graphed. Graphs of command workflows show how all commands tie together and describe their relative order.

Ant Commands

Module Builder adds two new kinds of commands, Command Workflow described above, and now also Ant commands. Ant commands are useful to those that prefer implementing commands in Ant, leveraging its core functionality, as well as, tasks from other libraries like ant-contrib and AntX.

Module Import

Any time a module is staged within Module Builder, an importable module distribution is created. The same module package that is installed into a Commander client can be imported into Module Builder with all command definitions and module files imported. This feature can be used as a form of backup and restore, or as a basis for distributed collaboration between users running their own Module Builder instances.

Stage dependent sub modules

Module Builder supports an inheritance model between modules. This is beneficial since it allows users to define general procedures in super modules and add specific commands to sub-modules without duplicating code. When a command definition changes in a super module, all inheriting sub modules must reflect that. Module Builder now includes a convenience function to update all sub-modules and re-stage them within a single operation. This simpflies the management of module hierarchies.

Deployments Search

A module developed in Module Builder can be used to control many instances of Deployments defined in Workbench. A new search function is added to Module Builder that finds all deployment objects that have bound the selected Module as their controller.

Windows Support

New in 2.1 is the support for Windows XP managed nodes. Centrally manage the execution of application deployment changes on Windows machines.

Ant Tasks

• Command workflow: Define a sequence of any Ant task in conjunction with a configurable error handler.
• Reference accessor: Lookup reference objects and retrieve the value of the specified field.
• Parallel: Three tasks allow you to create a Parallel Ant task, populate it with tasks programatically, and then execute it.
• Object{Add,Remove}Resource: A convenient interface to add or remove child resources from an Assembly object.
• GetProperties: Includes a new attribute to conditionally execute only if the versions of the objects have changed from the ones last retrieved.
• ShellCondition: A custom shell condition that evaluates true, if the supplied shell script exits with a zero exit code.

Commands

• Remove-Properties: Removes the file specified by ${entity.properties.file}
• Assembly-AddResource/Assembly-RemoveResource: Command line tools to add/remove child resources from the specified deployment object.