Tersus: Advanced Team Modeling Techniques (SVN Locking)

Advanced Team Modeling Techniques (SVN Locking)Date: Aug 23, 2009Version 1.3.19 of the studio introduces package locking to the model repository.By locking a package, the modeler indicates that he is editing the contents of the package, thereby preventing other team members from locking (end editing) the same package, until the lock is removed.Implementing locking in team modeling, minimizes the potential for synchronization conflicts and missing models.Setting up SVN Locking
Locking is implemented via the SVN repository. A package lock in the model repository is implemented as a .trp file lock in the SVN repository (see here for details on the mapping between packages and files).To enable locking each team member must do the following:

Setup the studio for SVN as explained here.

Edit the subversion config file (using any text editor). The location of the file is dpendent on the platform you're using:
Windows - %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Subversion\config
Linux - ~/.subversion/config

Make sure the enable-auto-props property is set to yes and is not commented out (remove the # character if it appears at the beginning)
Add the following line to the [auto-props] section:
*.trp = svn:needs-lock='*'

If the project in which you want to use locking is already shared, you'll need to do the following:

All team members should synchronise the project and commit all changes.

The lead modeler should:

Open the project in the studio
Switch to the Navigator view
Right click the models folder and select Team -> Set Property...
In the Set Property dialog:
Property name: svn:needs-lock
Enter a text property: *
Set property recurively: checked
Click OK
Commit the outgoing changes appearing in the models folder to the SVN repository
Switch to the Repository Explorer view
Verify that all packages and models now display a decoration indicating that they are read-only (= cannot be edited = unlocked)

All team members should now update their local copy of the project from SVN - they should see the same read-only indication.

Working with SVN LockingWhen a project is checked out from the repository, all packages will be unlocked, i.e. read-only, and the modeler will be unable to make any changes to it.When a modeler wishes to make a change to a model, he should:

Locate the package containing the model you wish to edit.
You can use Show in Repository Explorer to locate the model and its parent package (P).

Right click package P in the repository, and select Lock.
By default all sub-packages of P will also be locked

Edit the model.

Commit your changes.
Note the Keep locks checkbox in the Commit dialog. If you leave the check box unchecked (as is the default), all files (=packages) being committed will be unlocked, but there might be cases in which this will leave some of the sub-packages locked - consider the case where pacakge A contains package B which in turn contains package C. Package A is locked (recursively by default) and changes are made to A and C but not to B - in this case committing all changes and unlocking means B remains locked, since it had no changes.

Right click package P in the repository, and select Unlock.
By default all sub-packages of P will also be unlocked. If there are any uncomitted changes in P or its sub-packages you will be asked to reconfirm your request.

If you wish to unlock all packages in your project, use the the Unlock All option available on the root package.