Track Project Changes

Understanding and Tracking Project Changes

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Keeping track of changes made during the development process is crucial for maintaining efficiency, ensuring quality, and preventing potential issues in industrial automation projects. FactoryStudio offers various features to help users manage and track changes effectively.

Using Recent Changes Table

The Recent Changes feature in FactoryStudio allows users to keep track of the modifications made within their projects, providing a quick and efficient way to keep up to date with project development and maintenance.

When opening a Project, the Welcome page shows the latest changes in the project, with hyperlinks to that configuration.. See <link <Project Development > Welcome>>

That information is retrieved from a RecentChanges tables what in maintained inside the Project file itself.

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The Recent Changes feature in FactoryStudio allows users to keep track of the modifications made within their projects, providing a quick and efficient way to keep up to date with project development and maintenance. When opening a Project, the Welcome page shows the latest changes in the project, with hyperlinks to that configuration. That information is retrieved from a RecentChanges table that is maintained inside the Project file itself.

Overview of the Recent Changes interface

Navigating to Track > RecentChanges you have access the Recent Change Table

<<Image later>>

<<Add Description of the columns. 

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Navigating to Track > RecentChanges provides access to the Recent Change Table. The table displays information such as the Configuration Name, Type, Date and Time of modification, and User who made the change. It also shows a summary of what changes were made to the configuration.

Setting up data retention duration

<< Explain the top configuration to change the retention policy. Explain on admin can modify. Explain the comments column can be edited.

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FactoryStudio allows you to configure the duration of data retention for the RecentChanges table. This setting can be modified by an administrator and allows users to control how long they want to retain information in the Recent Changes table. Additionally, the Comments column can be edited to provide context and further information about the changes made.

Viewing and filtering recent changes

<< Basic explains on filter, refer to link on Grid usage on the project.

<< Explain about double-click to navigate to the item.

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Users can view and filter recent changes by configuration name, type, date and time of modification, and user who made the change. Additionally, double-clicking on an entry in the Recent Change Table will navigate the user to the relevant configuration. Filters can be used to refine the display and only show relevant changes. To learn more about filtering data in FactoryStudio, refer to the Grid usage section in the project documentation.

Version Identification and Configuration Management

This section contains:

• Version identification in FactoryStudio: Managing change information and configuration elements
• Importing and Exporting elements: create or retrieve CSV and JSON files with project configuration information.
• Integrating with popular version control systems (e.g., Git)

Version Identification

The Project configuration is essentially a SQL Database schema, with tables for the various modules and its configuration contents. 

For instance, The Script > Tasks configuration archived s ar a table inside the Project File, TPROJ, that contains all Project Tasks and its related configuration, include the code itself in this examples. 

That Database centric organization of the Project Configuration, allows an effective an effective means to track version changes.  Every time any row is changed, a property named VersionID is increments for that row. Simultaneously the VersionID for the table is also incremented.

The VersionID for the objects can visualized marking that column visible in any configuration table, the columns DateCreated and DateModified are useful as well. Look at section << Working DtaGrid>> to review on how to make columns visible or not visible, and the common columns all configuration tables have. 

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The Project configuration in FactoryStudio is organized as a SQL database schema, with tables for various modules and their configuration contents. Each time a change is made, the VersionID property is incremented for that row, and the VersionID for the table is also incremented. This allows for an effective means of tracking version changes. Users can view the VersionID for objects by marking that column visible in any configuration table. The DateCreated and DateModified columns are also useful for tracking changes. Refer to the Working DataGrid section to learn more about making columns visible and common columns for all configuration tables.

Importing and Exporting elements

The Project Designer main toolbar has two icons for importing and exports the selected table, or document to a text files

<Image of icons>

According the type of data you are exporting, the system will create a CSV file, a JSON file, or both. Here is the summary:

CSV files:  when exporting information from DataTables, like list of Tags, or AlarmItems, a CSV is created. 
JSON files: If the selected user interface is a Form, like Alarm GlobalSettings, or a document, like a Script Code, or Display Draw, a JSON is also created. 

Those files are created in a sub-folder with name Git-<project name>. The location of that folder is under the Project location, if you are opening the project from our location computer, or those files are created under MyDocuments if you are opening a file from a remote Project Server.

When the Import action is executed <image ICON>, the system looks for the JSON or CSV files, according to the table or document you are editing, and imposing that configuration to the project. 

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The Project Designer toolbar features two icons for importing and exporting selected tables or documents to text files. Depending on the type of data being exported, a CSV file, a JSON file, or both may be created. CSV files are used for exporting information from DataTables, while JSON files are used for exporting forms or documents such as Script Code or Display Draw. These files are created in a sub-folder named Git-<project name> within the Project location. The system can import the JSON or CSV files back into the project, and the export and import features can be used for integrating with version control systems such as Git. Refer to the How-to-guides section for more information on version control system integration.

Integrating with version control systems

The export and import to text files, describe on previous sessions can be used from integration of version controls systems. 

In order to facilitated that integration, the ProjectDesigner Welcome page has a configuration settings to automatically export the text files, when doing any project change.

<< Text Description of the settings, and Image)

When that option is set, when doing any change in DataGrid, like the Alarm Groups tables, or documents, like Scripts or Displays, the file is created when you save the document, or navigate way from that user interface, or when the configuration tools is close. 

In order to store those files from GIT, or other version management systems, you just need to do the proper mapping of that folder. The How-to-guides section has a step by step description on how to do with GIT, see link <<<<<. create doc >>>>>.

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To facilitate integration with version control systems, the Project Designer Welcome page features a configuration setting to automatically export text files whenever changes are made. When this option is enabled, changes made in DataGrid or documents are saved to a file when the user saves the document or navigates away from the user interface. The exported files can be stored in GIT or other version management systems by mapping the appropriate folder. The How-to-guides section provides a step-by-step description of how to integrate with GIT.

Cross-Reference and Use Count

• Overview of the Cross-Reference and Use Count interfaces

• Analyzing the usage of objects within the project

• Identifying dependencies between objects

• Managing Unused Objects

By using the Cross-Reference and Use Count features, users can ensure that their projects are efficient and free of unused or unnecessary objects, which can improve project performance and reduce maintenance costs.

Overview of the Cross-Reference and Use Count interfaces

The Cross-Reference and Use Count features in FactoryStudio allow users to analyze the usage of objects within their projects, identify dependencies between objects, and manage unused objects. The Cross-Reference feature shows the objects that are referenced by other objects within the project, while the Use Count feature shows the number of times an object is used within the project.

Analyzing the usage of objects within the project

The Use Count feature in FactoryStudio allows users to analyze the usage of objects within their projects. Access the Run → UseCount → Unused Objects tab and click the Refresh button to get the current list of unused objects. This feature is useful in identifying objects that are not in use, such as tags, devices, or report pages. The Run → UseCount → Used Objects tab shows objects that are being used.

Identifying dependencies between objects

The Cross-Reference feature in FactoryStudio allows users to identify the objects that are referenced by other objects within the project. This feature is useful in identifying dependencies between objects and ensuring that changes to one object do not adversely affect other objects in the project. The Cross-Reference feature can be accessed by selecting an object and then selecting Run → Cross-Reference.

Managing Unused Objects

The Unused Objects feature in FactoryStudio allows users to identify and remove unused objects from their projects. The Refresh button located on the Unused Objects tab displays all the objects that are unused. Users can select the object they want to remove and click Remove. Multiple objects can be removed at once by selecting multiple objects and clicking Remove. It is important to note that this feature will only work if an object is not in use. If an object is being used, either on the screen or by a line of code or script, this feature will not work. Additionally, it is highly recommended to pay attention to tags that are being passed by the .Link property and to use the <Object>.GetName() method rather than the object name as a typed text in expressions like TK.GetObjectValue.

Managing Unused Objects

• Overview of the Unused Objects interface
• Identifying and removing unused objects

Access the Run → UseCount → Unused Objects tab and click the Refresh button to get the current unused object list.

All the objects found are unused. Select the object you want to remove and click Remove. You can remove more than one object by selecting multiple objects at once and clicking Remove.... 

When does it work?

It works when there is an object that is not in use. The unused objects can be either tags, devices, or even a report page that is not being used.

When does it not work?

It does not work if the desired object is being used, either by something on the screen or by a line of code or script.

Does this functionality identify the tags being passed as a reference by the .Link property?

No. It is very important to pay attention to the tags that are being passed by the .Link property. Since you cannot undo this changes, our software warns you that it is highly not recommended to delete something in this situation (see previous image).

If the object is used as an expression, such as TK.GetObjectValue, will it recognize the use? 

No. Just like the “.Link” reference described above, the expression TK.GetObjectValue needs extra attention. Even if an object is in use, it will appear as if it were not in use. This is why we always recommend using the <Object>.GetName() method and not the “Object Name” as a typed text.

Collaborative Development, User Changes Logging?        

• Setting up and managing user roles and permissions
• Resolving conflicts and handling simultaneous edits

Backup, Recovery and Depoyment?

• Project configuration file and runtime databases?
• Copying files for backup
• Automatic backup creation during the build process
• Read-only published version of the Project
•  Deploying Project changes to production environment 

In this section...