Hey,
I the product development process sometimes you come across the situation where you don't want to create a complete build, in fact users do not want to re-install the product for fixing any defect or adding a new feature, so you need to provide a kind of hot-fix or a service pack to them.
The challenge in this process is tougher than creating a complete build, where you just compile the project and release the compiled files.
Can anybody tell me if it is possible at all to create patches using FB, I was trying the evaluation version and am not able to identify any feature or action which can help me in this.
Appreciate your help...
Thanks,
-Anupam
Yes, we currently use FinalBuilder and we provide patches when required. But, we require to use another application which is called during the build process which produces a list of dependant projects (projects that need to be built for the patch).
Process is as follows:
- Developer checks in files for patch
- Run the Build process in FinalBuilder
- Get Latest from the Source Control application - (in our case its Star Team)
- A list of files gets generated because they have been modified since the last build - (Seperate application written in house by a developer)
- From this list of modified files, another list of dependant projects is created - (seperate application written in house by a developer)
eg. R421441MedicareReconciliation.pas gets modified which requires a recompilation of the claims.dproj (Written in Delphi)
- From this list we use the Text find action for each individual package in our application and to see if there’s a match in the dependant projects list
- If theres a match a variable is set accordingly
- When the build project gets to the compilation section - it will use this variable in the execute condition - as in it will only compile that package if it existed within the dependant projects list.
You could then just release the compiled packages/projects/files or whatever that required a recompile.
So yes FinalBuilder can support patches, but may require some seperate console applications that run within the FinalBuilder build process, depending on your companies unique situation.
I hope this helps and isn’t too confusing.
Cam