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Staging Area Problem

Tarun

We are using OpenDeploy, which gets the files from STAGING and then does a directory comparison with the server file system and deploys the files. Sometimes we see that directories gets deleted from STAGING area. We put the data to STAGING from workareas data folder by using Submit-Direct.

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nipper

That sounds like normal behavior. Do the deletes get propagated via OpenDeploy ? Do you
want them to ?

What is the issue

Dwayne

Are you saying that you believe OpenDeploy to be deleting fles from STAGING? I would have serious doubts about that, unless you've got a DnR script associated with the deployment that's deleting directories from a workarea and then submitting them.

OpenDeploy, on it's own, has no way to delete files from STAGING, which is read-only. The only way to delete from STAGING is to submit deleted files/folders from a WORKAREA.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

Tarun

OpenDeploy has got nothing to do with deleting of files in STAGING. The problem is when we do Submit-Direct from our workarea in TeamSite we see that some other directories of other workareas which were there in STAGING gets deleted.

Say I have 2 workareas
articleworkarea
newsworkarea

under each workarea I have templatedata folders and corresponding data folders which have the html/images ie. articledata and newsdata. Now what is happening is when we are in newsworkarea and create few htmls and do the submit-direct on newsdata we see that articledata(which was already there in STAGING) gets deleted.

Adam Stoller

You haven't said so - but this sounds like you're trying to have the contents of each workarea be different. This has been talked about before in the forums and is a significant problem that can cause this kind of problem - especially if/when you submit from one of the workareas without having pre-selected any files.

Each workarea should be considered as a virtual view of the entire branch and the only thing that should be different in a workarea are the files which are currently being edited/created within it - otherwise the contents of each workarea should be identical - and kept so by using Get Latest prior to performing any new work.

If I'm wrong in my assumption about this being your situation - please see if you can provide more details about how things are setup to work in your enviornment and what actions lead to the problem you are experiencing.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

I will try to explain the setup which we have.

We have different workareas for users each having the same set of DCT/TPL (with path difference). Each workarea has a data folder where we store all the htmls and images. User working on a workarea puts the files in the data folder of that workarea and then they do submit-direct the entrie data folder (We have seen sometimes that without doing Submit-Direct also the files gets uploaded to STAGING area). Now the problem which we face sometimes is that when we do Submit-Direct the data folder which is in the workarea, some other data folders of other workareas which were available in STAGING gets deleted and then we have to do the Submit-Direct again for those workareas data folders.

Dwayne

It sounds to me that you're describing exactly what Fish was talking about, and you're encountering exactly the sorts of problems that are present with that type of setup. My guess is that the folders go "missing" from STAGING when the user has the "Overwrite" checkbox set (I don't have a 5.5.2 box in front of me, and I don't remember exactly the text of the label, but it's something like "overwrite"). When that is checked, any files in STAGING but not in the workarea will in fact be removed from STAGING. This is as-designed behavior.

If you're going to use different workareas containing separate aspects of the data (and I caution against it), then I would strongly recommend that you disable submit direct, and use a submit workflow in it's place. You can then have more control, to make sure that only the appropriate files get moved to STAGING, and that other files are left alone. It will be a lot more work to set up, but also a lot less prone to these sorts of problems.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

Edited by Dwayne on 09/14/04 05:42 AM (server time).

screenshot.jpg

Adam Stoller

We have different workareas for users each having the same set of DCT/TPL (with path difference).

It's that parenthetical comment which concerns me (and should concern you) - every workarea on a branch should have the exact same content - including directory structure - as every other one; with the only exception being the files which are currently being modified/created within the given workarea.

If you try to maintain different structures - you will run into the problem you are seeing.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

Thanks Dwayne for the info. Do you mean that we should follow the complete workflow for adding an article like editor assigns some job to authors and authors then send to editor for approval? Right now the editors are directly adding the content and doing submit-direct.

Tarun

Ghoti by Path difference I mean not the path under templatedata. The templatedata contents are exactly the same in all workareas (same category and data types with exactly the same path) but in DCT we have ceiling-dir set for images etc. (which is what I meant by path difference in DCT/TPL)

Dwayne

Do you mean that we should follow the complete workflow for adding an article like editor assigns some job to authors ...

Not necessarily. You can have a very simply workflow that, in essense, does the same thing that submit direct does, but provides an extra step to "filter out" any files that shouldn't be there, based on the workarea. Such a workflow doesn't exist "out of the box," because the filtering mechanism is specific to your situation. But if you can put your filter logic in the <template_script> section of the WFT file, then the actual workflow itself would need to have only two tasks: a <submittask> and an <endtask>.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

Adam Stoller

I'm still not sure I understand you - are you saying the same DCT/PT that exists in different workareas uses different path settings for ceiling-dir for images? That doesn't make sense to me.

As Dwayne asked - are your users selecting the Overwrite option when submitting - if so, tell them not to.

Are your users selecting the specific files they wish to submit when doing a Submti Direct - or are they not selecting anything and intending to submit all the modified files in the workarea when doing a Submit Direct? If the latter - they would be better off doing a View > List Modified first, then Select All (making adjustments as desired), and *then* Submit Direct.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

Yeah. This is needed so that the user doesn't end up selecting any image from templatedata directory.

I will give an example:

We have workarea structure as follows:

workarea1
--templatedata
--area1data
--sections
-section1
-images
-section2
-images

workarea2
--templatedata
--area2data
--sections
-section1
-images
-section2
-images
-section3
-images

Now in the dct of a datatype in workarea1 we have set the ceiling directory as ceiling-dir="/area1data/sections" and in workarea2 ceiling-dir="/area2data/sections". We want the user to select a file under their data directory only.

I hope this clarifies.

Also as Dwayne said that if we use the Submit-Direct option then the files which are not present in the workarea will be deleted from STAGING area. I think it should be like that only. But in our case it is deleting the entire data directory (eg. area1data) instead of deleting only the files. Again this is not happening always but only sometimes.

Adam Stoller

We have workarea structure as follows:
workarea1
--templatedata
--area1data
--sections
---section1
----images
---section2
---images

workarea2
--templatedata
--area2data
--sections
---section1
----images
---section2
----images
---section3
----images The items in blue are just to provide what I believe is a more correct depiction of the structure you say you have.

The items in red are the places where you are violating the basic concepts of TeamSite and therefore getting into trouble.

Every workarea on a given branch is intended to be a complete virtual representation of the entire branch - if you only want users from one workarea to have access to a specific directory within that branch, then you set the access at the file system level and/or with the submit.cfg file but you should not attempt to have different structures in different workareas on the same branch.

If you fix that setup issue - I believe your problems with directories disappearing will go away.

If you intend to keep that setup structure - be prepared to continue running into this kind of problem - probably forever.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

Thanks ghoti for that info.

We have a requirement where users can have different folders/files under their workareas. In that case I believe we will have to create different sub-branches for all users and each sub-branch will have one workarea. Also since each branch has its own staging area we will need to change the open deploy configuration to reflect the new paths etc.(we are doing directory comparison) I hope by doing this we will eliminate the missing directories error which we are facing. (Correct me if I am wrong)

Adam Stoller

That should "fix" the problem you are seeing - but I would suggest re-visting the "requirement where users can have different folders/files under their workareas". I think there needs to be a thorough understanding of why this requirement exists / what this requirement is supposed to provide.

If you can revise the requirement - it will be a lot easier.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

Thanks Ghoti.

The requirement which we have is that the users will be in different locations and they want to have the option of creating/customizing new sections/folders (and the same will be displayed on the site when they login from their respective locations).

Currently we have the following structure but we will need to change that to overcome the problem of missing directories (as you said that each workarea in a particular branch should have exactly the same folders at any level but only the files can be different).

branch1
-workarea1
--templatedata
--data
----sections
-----section1
-------images
-----section2
-------images

-workarea2
--templatedata
--data
----sections
-----section1
-------images
-----section2
-------images
-----section3
-------images

Adam Stoller

What I'm saying is that when someone within workarea2 creates section3 and submits it - someone has to be responsible for doing a Get Latest in workarea1 so that the same section3 directory (and contents) appear in that workarea too. There will be periods in which the structure and/or files differ - while they are being worked on - but after being reviewed/approved - all workareas on the branch should appear identical.

If the files/directories created within workarea2 need to be "protected" so that users who only have access to workarea1 cannot modify them - that happens at the filesystem level and/or via the submit.cfg file - thus alloowing the directory to appear in workarea1 without providing access to those users.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

We have already set the users to only access their workareas. So user1 has the access to only workarea1 and user2 has access to only workarea2 and we don't want the sections of one workarea to appear in workarea of other user.

Adam Stoller

If file system access permissions aren't sufficient for your needs - then yes - you need separate branches.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Tarun

Thanks for the info.