Overview

To enable a user to check methods into and out of the JADE database, a delta must be set.

Deltas apply to all schemas in your JADE development environment, including the RootSchema and any other superschema or subschema, to enable more than one developer to work in the same delta, if required.

You can specify a delta code when extracting a schema from a parameter file; for example, to automate the checking in of a delta at run time so that you can create the release of a change for testing purposes. For details about automating the extraction of a schema, see "Extracting Schemas as a Non-GUI Client Application", in Chapter 10 of the JADE Development Environment User’s Guide.

You can specify the optional delta command line argument when running a non-GUI client application using the jadclient executable. For details, see "Running a Non-GUI Client Application using jadclient", in Chapter 1 of the JADE Runtime Administration Guide.

In a multiuser JADE environment, deltas enable developers working in different parts of JADE to lock methods so that they cannot be accessed by developers in other parts of the JADE development environment. (See also "Change Control and Patch Versioning Considerations", in Chapter 1.)

Deltas are also useful if you want to test the modification of a method and are unsure if you want to keep your modifications. Checking out a method, making your changes, and then selecting the Undo Checkout command from the Methods menu Delta submenu in the Class Browser or Primitive Types Browser enables you to discard your changes.

Methods can be checked in and out only when a delta is set.

If you want methods to be checked out only to the current delta instead of the default action if methods being checked out to multiple deltas, set the SingleDelta parameter in the [DeltaOptions] section of the JADE initialization file to true. Setting the parameter to true is ignored for methods that have already been checked out to multiple deltas; it is effective only for all methods that are subsequently checked out.

The Remove command in the Methods menu is disabled when a method from an exported interface is checked out, so that neither the original method nor the checked out method or methods can be removed. Before you can remove the method, you must check it in or undo the checking out of the method.

When a user is set to a delta, checked out versions of methods are extracted when a schema is extracted.

You can change your default delta options, if required, by using the Source Management sheet from the Options menu Preferences command. From the Schema Browser, select (and set, if required) the schema whose deltas you want to view or maintain.

A Delta Browser window is then opened. If you have not yet defined a delta, nothing is displayed in the Delta Browser.

Only one Delta Browser for the current schema can be open at any time. If a Delta Browser is already open for that schema, it is brought to the top when you select the Deltas command from the Browse menu.

You can have concurrent open Delta Browsers for different schemas in a development session.