AllChange – Configuration

How do I enforce that a Change Request (CR) be specified for a change to be made?

This is defined as an attribute of part classes.
The ‘Require CR’ attribute for a class of component causes a list to be presented of CRs, which may be used to authorise a check out for edit. A CR must be selected in order for the check out for edit to proceed
Using ACCONFIG select the class of components, which are to require a CR in the classes window (from Plan | Classes) and tick the ‘Require CR’ option.

How do I ensure that my files are always available in my workspace?

This is defined as an attribute of part classes.
The ‘Keep Checked out’ attribute for a class causes a part to be checked out read only after it has been checked in from edit.

Using ACCONFIG select the class of components which are to be kept checked out in the classes window (from Plan | Classes) and tick the ‘Keep Checked out’ attribute.

If I have several projects that I want controlled in AllChange should I have a different AllChange project for each project?

That depends on your specific environment and requirements. In general we recommend keeping everything in a single AllChange project (and therefore database) as this has the following advantages:

Statistics and Reports can be generated to give corporate wide data
Administration is kept to a minimum as there is only one project to maintain and upgrade (when new versions of AllChange come along)
However there are situations where this is not suitable, for example there are strict security requirements such that it is imperative that everything is kept totally separate, or there are a small number of very large projects which are distributed amongst different offices and there is no great need for statistics across them all.

Should I use part life-cycles?

This really depends on your site specific procedures.
In the simplest case a part which has no life cycle may be in one of 2 states checked in or checked out. If this is sufficient then you do not need to use part life-cycles.
If you require (or envisage that you might require) any form of approval procedures, then use part cycles and these procedures can be automated.

I want to use AllChange to deploy my web source by using an FTP Workspace but my user name on the host and client do not match?

You need to specify the user name for your remote host in the user registration.

I want to use AllChange to deliver code to a remote platform but the user name on the remote machine does not match my normal user name.

You need to specify the user name for your remote host in the user registration.

If I want to change my cycle definition

If you are NOT:

changing the name of an existing status,
or deleting an existing status
or changing the cycle of an existing class where the statuses in the cycles are different

Then no special action need be taken as any items with a current class/status will not be affected. If, however, any of the above is true then existing items may/will be affected and the following should be considered:

If changing an existing status name or deleting one then any existing items with that cycle have the status that is to be modified should have their status changed to a status that is not going to be modified BEFORE changing the cycle
If changing the cycle that is associated with a class:

First change the class of all items of the class that is to change to ‘None’
Change the cycle for the class in ACCONFIG
Change the items class back to the desired class (This will have the effect of setting the status of each item to the initial status in the new cycle).

If I change the class of an item and this changes the cycle what should I take into account?

If the change of class changes the cycle then see ‘If I want to change my cycle definition what should I take into account’ and treat as a cycle change.

I want to use AllChange’s facility to mail a user when, for example, they are assigned a CR. How do I specify a user’s email address which is NOT the same as their AllChange user name?

AllChange identifies a user by inquiring who they logged on to the network as.
Email addresses are often quite different to this logon name, for example a user who logs on as ‘fred’ may have a E-mail address of ‘fred@intasoft.net’.
The solution is to specify their Mail Name in the User Registration window
(under Access | User Registration in ACConfig).

Is it possible to get AllChange to mail several users when, for example, a CR is assigned?

You will need to modify the ‘action’ for assigncr in the Command Definitions file to pass the required users (or groups) to the Mail function.