The Novulo Composer

[k.molokova]

The composer application

What is the Novulo Composer?

Using the Composer, a user can select components and check the validity of the combination according to the requirements and settings.

The Novulo Composer has a connection with the Novulo App Server (check Navigating Novulo Application Server) and has knowledge of all Novulo components and their dependencies based on concepts, features and process components (check Concepts and features: An introduction).

Composer includes a software algorithm that assists the user in making a valid selection of components which can be woven into a Novulo integrated applications (check the terminology here).

It can use existing applications to be used as an example for a new application (the button “Create update suggestion based on”).

It can also be used to make any valid software solution based on one ore more requirements of components that you want to include in your application.

The result of the Novulo Composer is a GUIDs selection of components and datasets in a certain revision. This can be sent to Novulo Deployment. When sending the components from the Composer to Novulo Deployment, an integration string is being sent.

How to find/open/set up a cart?

• Open the Composer. You need to log in with your Novulo credentials or with Novulo Support.

• Click on the Dashboard on the main screen. Search for a needed model.
  Hint: To find a number of a model, you can search in Deployment > Instances or in the Application server.

• If you want to load a specific revision, you can fill it in in the field “revision”. To load the latest version, leave the field “revision” empty.

• Click on Go OR load a cart from integration string. The Composer loads a cart with all components that are present in the chosen integrated application.
  

  

• You can start a new cart or open the existing one.
  

  

Notice the difference:

• starting a new cart always creates a “fresh” update based on the latest version of your model;
• load a previous cart can be useful if you made cart changes (added a component(s), changed some revisions, etc.) that aren’t deployed yet but are still needed to be deployed.

You can also find your (coworkers) Cart history in the Carts table:

You are in the cart

First check the Cart settings (form in the right top corner). Here you can set the minimal status and Architect version for components in the Products grid. It means: all components must have the minimal status or higher and have been saved with the needed Architect version.

Notice! If you load a previous cart and click on the button “Update it to the latest” in the Cart settings form, it pulls the latest revision of the model and discarded any changes that are not deployed yet.

• If you only want to update components that are already present in the integrated model, you can change their revision by selecting them in the Products grid and pressing the button “Change version”. If you click directly on the revision number, it will be updated to the latest revision.

• If you want to add a new component to your products list, click the plus button > use the left panel (look for a product and choose a version).

• The right panel “Add product to composer” is specifically used for the publishing a new component (adding a newly created component). If you need to use this option > click on “Add product”. The Composer warns you if you are going to add a newly created component and suggests to use Add product workflow.
  

  

• The newly added product will be visible in the cart, you can work with it (choose revision, etc.).

• An effortless way of setting up a ready-to-use application is to Create an update suggestion based on another model (for example, the Novulo Training Core, M10517) or the latest status (for example, Beta status).

Suggestions

If you make an update suggestion based on another model/latest status, you will receive a list of actions. You can select which you want to execute. There are four types:

1. Add: adds a new component,
2. Upgrade: updates an existing component,
3. Downgrade: downgrades an existing component to an suggested (earlier) revision,
4. Remove: removes a component.

Notice! To solve all issues most optimally first try to upgrade the existing component and then add new ones. Only if there are still errors, try to downgrade and then remove component(s).

Choose actions you selected to execute (1) > click Execute on cart (2) > click Check errors (3) > repeat while there are no errors > return to the cart and make a final check.

Final checks

When the cart is ready:

• check configuration (3);
• check rules (4);
• check status (5);
• check plugins (6)
• or just “Check all and send to deployment”.

If there are any new errors > open an error > reload fixes > chose one fix (tick it) > click on the button “Use fix” > click on the button “Check errors” to make sure that the issue is fixed. Don’t forget to execute the action on the cart.

Click on the deployment link to start deployment.

Check also How can I set up a new application?