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[jtompkins]

It would be helpful when, before deploying changes to a project in Compose, we were given the ability to review changes between the current deployed version and to-be-deployed version. This is important because it is very easy to inadvertently select or deselect mappings or ETL sets in a project and for it to go unnoticed. This is especially true in a multi-developer environment. Compose should be able to analyze and compare the JSON files and output the differences.

[ubanerjee]

Second this. A diff report is very import considering everything is overwrite and there is no rollback.

[TimGarrod]

Opening this for additional community feedback - specifically to understand more about what features a comparison should show as there are a number of configurations and details within Compose. 

Eg. Database configurations, Model - Entity, Relationships, Attributes, Attribute Domains, Mappings and mapping log, Data mart definitions,   ETL Task configuration (mapping alignment as mentioned as well as settings like number of connections etc.). 

Typically deployments are managed across servers also - so if the request to have an external utility that would compare a JSON deployment file with a PROD server (without accessing the PROD server directly) ? 

If it is - while not available in the UI (and not currently using the JSON deployment package) - please note there is an ability to perform a similar comparison using the ComposeCLI and compare_csv features. 

Regarding Rollback - if you deploy using the CLI, there is a backup feature that backsup the sqllite repo's in the event of a failure during deployment (this is then used to restore if a backup files).    However, it sounds like having an automated "create version" or deployment package backup would be a feature to support rollback that @ubanerjee suggests ?

[jtompkins]

 Entity, Relationships, Attributes, Attribute Domains, Mappings, Data mart definitions,  and ETL Task configuration would be good to compare. Obviously database configs would be different because they are across environments.

And yes, I was envisioning a utility that lets the user basically upload two different JSON files for comparison, without needing to access multiple servers.

[ubanerjee]

@TimGarrod  :  We make changes to the DW by utilizing a separate project. Any new relationships and attribute changes are done in a different project and once changes have been tested it is imported back into the Master project from the UI(Import Entities from another project).

During this step, Compose will simply overwrite the new entity. In this case it will be helpful to see prior to doing the actual import what will get changes.  This only works for the Entity/Attributes/Attribute Domain / Mappings. I would expect a tree view that would show what will get added, modified or deleted.

 Entity

--> Attributes

-->---> Attribute Domain

--> Mapping

-->--> Column Mapping

Ability to select/unselect something from this tree will be great. However, just being able to see what is changing will be good too. 

Additionally, when moving json between environments, If there is a much more exhaustive report about what will change before actually changing anything it will help admins be more confident about deployments. 

[srstage80]

This capability would be exceptionally helpful in our development process in which anywhere from 1 to 10 developers could be working on different parts of the same project simultaneously.  A deployment comparison would directly accelerate our process as opposed to methods we must employ now which require a lot of manual effort.

[Meghann_MacDonald]

From now on, please track this idea from the Ideation portal. 

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Meghann

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