Best practice for publishing from desktop to cloud?

[CurtDaughtryBP]

Summary:

* If you develop using Desktop client and publish to the cloud, it creates a new file (instead of updating an existing).

* This is a problem.

* How do you upload an update to an existing app that is hosted in the cloud?

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Details:

We have QSEoCS running well (the SaaS offering for the enterprise edition).

Right now, we are developing the apps locally (via Desktop) and publishing the completed app to the SaaS environment.

Each time we do this, it creates a new app instead of replacing a target app.

This is problematic because

1. user content is lost
2. You have to recreate the reload schedules, tags, etc.

Back story: We are doing this because the connectivity and performance while developing in the SaaS environment is suspect. Consuming is fine but there are times when the auto-save just doesn't work. So for efficiency sake, we are developing locally and pushing to the cloud for consumption (with all data connections and reloads working automatically).

When publishing to SaaS, Is there any way to replace an existing app instead? Or could someone point me toward the workflow best practice in the SaaS environment?

I really would prefer to avoid setting up an QSEoW instance simply to automate the publishing of an app to the Cloud offering.

[squeakie_pig]

At the latest Qlik Virtual Meetup Scotland session, Alex Polorotov gave a demo of their version control app which is a chrome extension that integrates with most of the bigname version control providers (github, subversion etc).  https://gitoqlik.com/

I am unsure if this works with SaaS ...yet.  It was one of the questions asked during the session but I don't remember the answer.  But if so, that would be an excellent path around this pesky new-file-creation in SaaS.

The meetup session is recorded, and available here.  https://www.qlikmeetupscotland.co.uk/2020/07/17/qvms-episode-8/

[CurtDaughtryBP]

Thanks for your response.

This is interesting but not exactly what I had in mind. The version control appears it would have to be managed within the single environment.

My question is more of a dev to prod workflow best practice. Except in this scenario, dev = desktop and prod = SaaS.

There doesn't appear to be a good methodology for managing this.

Any thoughts?

[CurtDaughtryBP]

@Michael_Tarallo Will you weigh in? Not getting much traction from the community and I would think this would be of interest to the product development lifecycle intended for the SaaS offering.

[squeakie_pig]

Hi @CurtDaughtryBP 

Have been mulling over this and still think it is possible (haven't had time to test it though).  The chrome extension could be used locally by accessing the desktop version via a browser (http://localhost:4848/hub/my/work)  That would get you anything in the backup repo locally to be used in either the local client or browser.  That way the qvf in SaaS is only a shell and you can push all the changes to it minus the whole-new-file-creation-every-single-time.

Agree with you about the auto-save and session-timeouts.  We've had many instances where work has been lost and you're sure you saved something and are now going mad (or Qlik is gaslighting you), which is why we're also using desktop environment for dev work.  I checked with our provider who confirmed with qlik that the session timeout is definitely 30 minutes, but the autosave and any non-30 minute-time-outs is most likely due to other connectivity issues (like bad wifi etc).  Which doesn't make for a very stable dev platform if you work remote and have terrible wifi.

[CurtDaughtryBP]

Thanks for your input @squeakie_pig 

I think we are going to pivot to a Windows VM. I have a feeling the answer is that it isn't possible. As we expand our team and have multiple contributors to the app, we have to have a way for the contributions to not result in a new file.

If you do find anything related, I'd love to know the answer to this.