This section describes the rational for gmStudio's approach to deployment .
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Why Bundle?
One of the unique features of gmStudio is that is allows you to separate code generation from code deployment. This best practice resulted from our work in helping teams perform migrations of very large systems. It works like this: rather than publishing the translated code as separate files and folders immediately as they are produced, gmStudio creates a consolidated text archive that contain all the files. This text archive, or bundle file as we call it, must be explicitly processed, or "deployed", to create the separate files and folders. By default, this feature works behind the scenes and it is extremely fast so you barely notice it. This approach provides additional control and visibility to the migration effort, and having all the generated code in a single file facilitates several useful operations:
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- First, different operating systems use different internal file formats for text files, which form the bulk of the files in the site. This system knows these formats and can both recognize and produce them as it performs the various deployment operations. Binary zip formats cannot change the formats as they gather and then distribute files; thus, the user is required to use a separate process to do the text-line format conversions.
- Second, the authoring facilities of this system produce outputs which contain many files. It makes this operation easier to manage if the authors can produce single files using this text-based format that can then deployed once they have been produced and accepted.
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So what is a Bundle File?
Bundle files are the self-extracting text archives produced by the translation process.
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The translator always writes your translation to a bundle file that you specify in the Translation Script and a separate step, running the deployment tool -- is used to run the bundle file. By default, gmStudio handles all of this behind the scenes.
Viewing and Reporting your Bundles
You can view the deployment logs for a given migration unit by selecting the [Deploy Log] option on the [Task Details] tab. Checking the [Grid] option here will display the internal contents of the bundle file.
You can generate a report of the internal contents of the bundle files for selected migration units in your project by clicking [Reports/Code Bundles].
How Deployment Works
Deployment is a specific step in the migration process that can be turned on of off from the [Batch Control] Form. By default deployment is always on and runs after the Translation step and before the Build step.
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The deploy tool is actually a command processor that can remove and create folders, and execute external programs. For example, the deploy.exe utility is used to deploy and build to binary (by running MSBuild) all the prototype assemblies generated in a prototype translation.
Default VB6 Deployment
Translating a VB6 migration unit produces a set of files that correspond to the ones referenced by the source VBP:
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Select [Open .NET Project Folder] on the migration unit context menu open the deployment folder for that unit. Select [View\Deploy Folder] to open the deploy folder for your migration project. |
Example VB6 Deployment
The ScanTool sample has the following settings
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deploy V9.77 (BETA.007) System Build(6/18/09 8:40:51) Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\ScanToolLib.csproj Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\AssemblyInfo.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\modScanToolLib.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsVBPRefReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsDirList.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsVBPBinReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsCOMReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsVBPModReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsVBPCntReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsVBPSrcReporter.cs Unbundling: C:\GMS\samples\workspace\DemoScanTool\deploy\ScanToolLib_iop2_csh\clsScanControl.cs
Default Web Deployment
Translating a web site has a different deployment model because folder structures tend to be much more elaborate and important to the conceptual design, security, and operation of the site. In addition #include paths may be virtual or physical and the concept of a virtual root directory comes into play.
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[WorkspaceRoot]\[MigName]\deploy\ where: [WorkspaceRoot] is the workspace root folder [MigName] is the migration project name
Example Web Deployment
The DemoFMSWeb_csh.gmproj sample has the following settings:
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This folder ultimately ends up in the bundle file and directs the physical deployment of files to disk.
Custom VBP deployment
The VBP deployment conventions are controlled by several settings in the gmStudio.cfg file:
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