OBIEE-MUDE (Multiuser Development Environment)

Introduction

MUDE stands for Multi User Development Environment. It is set of features and a process in OBIEE that allow a group of developers to take the subset of repository (termed as projects), work on them separately, and then automatically merge their subset back into the master repository. This very MUDE feature is available in Oracle BI Administration Tool which allows distributed development on the master repository. When you enable MUDE for your developer, an administrator can define number of projects for the master repository that can be checked out by developers and worked on separately. The developers change can be published back to main repository. When developers work on these projects they basically work on local file of the projects and have complete write access to it. There is no scope for overwriting each other’s work.

Therefore, we can say that the entire concept of MUD (Multiuser Development) revolves around objects called as Projects

How it works?

01.  In MUDE environment, an administrator first defines one or more projects within your main repository.

02.  Each project are  

n   Subset of repository metadata

n  Consists of presentation layer subject areas and their associated logical facts, dimensions, hierarchies, application role, users, variables, initialization blocks.

n    Can overlap with other projects.

03.  This main repository is then placed on a shared network accessible to all developers and become the master repository.

04.  Developers from their workstations can access the shared repository by installing the Admin Tool on their machine. Admin tool will help to connect the shared repository.

05.  You can check out the required project from the master repository and make the required changes and finally merge the changes to the master repository.

Setting up the MUDE

01.  Open the RPD in Online mode through Admin Tool.

02.  Go to Tools --> Options…

03.  Before checking out the projects each developer must set up the Admin Tool application to point out to Multiuser development directory (shared directory).

     Select Tools --> Options… and then click the Multiuser Tab.

04.  Check out projects.[Make sure there is repository file (.rpd) present in the shared directory]

A.    Check out and select the desired project or projects from the list. In the below screenshot I have selected one project out of multiple shown.

B.    After selecting the project or projects user must enter the name(say MyProject.rpd)of new extracted repository which will be stored in user’s local directory as shown below

C:\app\oracle\middleware\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication_obis1\repository

The extracted repository is displayed with the subset of metadata from the main/master repository.

The developer makes metadata changes in MyProject.rpd file.

The second local copy which is appended with the prefix “original” is for comparison purpose with the changed project in MyProject.rpd.

All changes are tracked in the log file stored in the same location. When the developer selects and saves the projects to the local repository file, the Admin tool does not put a lock on Master repository. Therefore, nothing really stops others to work on the same project.

C. To check which all projects has been checked out check the multiuser development log in the log viewer.

D.    Change the metadata as per developer requirement in the MyProject.rpd file.Save and check the consistency.

E..    To check in the changes to the Master repository, follow the below steps:-

n  First compare with the original repository file (originalMyProject.rpd) to make sure whatever changes you did to MyProject.rpd file with respect to originalMyProject.rpd is correct.

                 n  If satisfied with the changes, the developer can publish them to the master repository.

 n  When you choose “Publish to Network…” a lock information window will pop up. This says master      repository is locked before the merge takes place. This lock is placed to make sure not more than one developer can merger the change at the same time. Once the lock is placed and there is no merge conflicts, changes are published immediately and the lock is released. 

 n  Developer can also view the history of master repository who all has checked out the projects and    what all conflicts were resolved.