Manage instances and revisions

ITSM Designer - Combodo's customers only

This view aims at providing you with project management tools.

If you are not already familiar with the concepts of Revision and Instance, please take some time to read and understand the fundamental principles of the ITSM Designer.

Let us comment the example shown above:

The instance highlighted in blue is the Active instance. The active instance is the target for some of the buttons of the toolbar. This instance is active because you have entered the designer coming from that instance.
All of the revisions have been moved in production on the Development system (the active one). On the other hand, the production system has been updated twice, and is currently running the revision “Production V1”.

Icon	In short	More information
	Undo	Click on the button to undo the previous operation, or click on the triangle to select the operations to undo. The button is grayed in case undoing is not allowed (e.g. after a move to production)
	Move to production	Push the latest revision to the active instance (highlighted in blue). You will be prompted to enter a comment, then to confirm the operation. This button is equivalent to the button that allows you to select any revision (see paragraph Move to production)
	Test	Test the latest revision to the active instance. This button is shown only if the active instance has been given the role 'Production and Test'
	Diff	Show the differences (in raw XML) between two revisions of your design.
	Clone	Create a copy of a past revision and make it the current revision. Available only to the Power users profile.
	Exit	Exit the designer and go back to the active instance. You remain logged onto the designer so that going back and forth between your instance and the designer does not prompt you anytime for your credentials.
	Change password	Opens a window in which you can change your Combodo customer password.
	Logoff	Exit the designer

Undoing changes is definitive. Your changes will be definitively lost. Moreover, as similar changes are grouped into one change, undoing can undo a little more than expected. Undoing is recommended when you have deleted something by mistake.

Revision labelling

By default, a revision has a label formed with a number: Revision 123456. That number is a unique identifier and might help in troubleshooting any issue but it is of no help for a normal usage.

Clicking on the current label opens a dialog box. In that dialog box, you can enter a new label, or edit the current one.

If you also enter a comment, this comment will be displayed when moving the mouse over the label, as shown hereafter:

A comment can be removed. On the other hand, once a label has been given, you can modify it but it is mandatory to enter a non empty string.

Differences between revisions

Once you have done several modifications, the schema will show a timeline with several revisions.

Clicking on the Diff button button, displays a popup dialog showing the XML alterations between the two selected revisions.

Select the revisions you want to compare:

green color means adding a tag (or a branch)
blue color means modification of a tag (or a branch)
red color means removal of a tag (or a branch)

Click on a particular displayed tag (colored or not) to get the details of the change in the right pane

Colored tag

None colored tag

Managing Instances

The homepage shows, for each instance connected to the Designer, a colored bullet telling when this instance last connected to the ITSM Designer

Grey: we don't know, so for sure older than November 2018
Yellow: last connection occurred more than 6 months ago
Blue: between 6 month and one month
Green: less than a month ago

Instance labelling

By default, an instance has the label Untitled instance.

Clicking on the current label opens a dialog box. In that dialog box, you can:

enter a new label, or edit the current one;
modify the role of the instance (see Managing instances)
enter a description: will be displayed when moving the mouse over the label, as shown hereafter:

Clicking on the highlighted area next to the pencil icon displays the following dialog box:

A description can be removed. On the other hand, once a label has been given, you can modify it but it is mandatory to enter a non empty string.

The “Delete instance” button is present only if the selected instance is not the current one (i.e. the instance shown on the blue background)

You can re-create a deleted instance by connecting to this instance and using the menu “Admin tools/ITSM Designer” to enter the Designer from this instance. You will be prompted for your ITSM Designer license key and the instance will be re-created in the Designer. The only information lost will be the optional label that you associated with this instance in the Designer, and its “role” (Production, Production and test or Staging).

Instance upgrading

At the bottom of the instance description area, the exact product version of the instance is given:

Clicking on the version shows the Upgrade dialog box. The Upgrade dialog box allows you to download another version of the product. The download will NOT install the product upgrade. You will have to follow the iTop upgrade instructions given in the Upgrade dialog.

Select a version on the left pane of the pop-up window
Download the package on the right pane
- You can select the full package for a new/standard installation
- Or if your iTop is on that branch already, download the patch version and install it using the console System/Application update menu, this is faster and safer, especially if you are not a system expert.

After an upgrade, jump into the designer from the upgraded instance. This is necessary to inform the ITSM Designer, and adjust the product version number shown in the Designer home view.

The update dialog box is not displayed if there is currently no update available.

Move to production

Moving a revision into production always applies to the active instance.

There are two ways to update the active instance:

Click on the toolbar button to apply the very latest revision
Click on the instance button to apply a specific revision

Here is a variant of the view shown on top of the current chapter, but this time the active instance is the Production system.

Using the backup and restore on a given instance you can roll-back the instance to a previous revision (but the data are rolled-back as well). Otherwise a Power User can use the “Clone” button to duplicate a past revision and make it the current revision.

Moving into production opens a dialog box in which you can enter a comment. This comment will be shown in a tooltip when moving your mouse over the intersection of the instance and revision:

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