Hey folks,
We are shifting out SelfHosted Tessitura to Hosted Services (nee RAMP) and in the run up we really need to have a good look at the various, and many customisations that have been put in place over the last 10 years.
Does anyone have advice, tips and/or a customisation leger/doc that has helped them in the past?
H
I keep a separate MS Access database that tracks custom reports, objects, customizations that are based on canned versions that need to be explicitly checked for each upgrade, etc. (Re the MS Access db, don't laugh ;), I created it when I started the job in 2006 and haven't moved it elsewhere yet. I have grand plans as a low priority project to actually track this in Tess...someday!) This database is also where we log all changes to customizations or significant changes to Tessitura's system table values, integrations, etc.
A simple front-end convention that we've always instituted is to put the copyright symbol (©) at the end of all of our report names. This helps end users distinguish between canned and custom reports.
And of course the leading "L" in front of all backend custom object names. It's not foolproof since some EcoSystem partners and TNEW code also use the leading L, but it certainly whittles down the list!
One area where we don't mark or track customizations, however, and I would love to hear how others are doing this, is with output set objects (groups, elements, and parameters) and list manager elements. I'm toying with the idea of adding the copyright symbol to these objects' descriptions, but how are others noting these?
Katie Lachance-Duffy said:(Re the MS Access db, don't laugh ;)
Never! :-D
Katie Lachance-Duffy said:A simple front-end convention that we've always instituted is to put the copyright symbol () at the end of all of our report names.
Interesting. All of our custom reports are named "GT:...", as per a 2008 recommendation from Ron Wilson. A naming convention that has come in handy from time to time.
Katie Lachance-Duffy said:One area where we don't mark or track customizations, however, and I would love to hear how others are doing this, is with output set objects (groups, elements, and parameters) and list manager elements.
Similar to Lists, we name all Extractions and Output Sets "Dept_User_Etc", e.g. "IS_CJ_MyOutputSet". Conformity to this naming convention is ruthlessly enforced. :-)
Extractions and Output sets sure, but what about custom list elements and output set elements? I tried briefly to use our "CP" formula there, but that just confused people making lists and output sets into thinking that you could ONLY use them when looking at a "CP" event.
John A. Moskal II said:what about custom list elements and output set elements?
No, no naming convention for those here. I think that would make finding anything more complex, though v16 offering more inline client search fields will be welcome.
If anyone wanted a report of custom elements, etc., I bet I could write one that looked at created_by fields and come up with decent output from that.
By the way, my favorite field in T_KEYWORD is keyword_desc. I add notes about when and for whom each attribute, etc., was created, right there in the table. If only more tables had a similar notes field....
More description fields... you know Chris Jensen, that is an IDEA.
Yes, a good IDEA:
community.tessituranetwork.com/.../more-notes-fields-in-system-tables
Thanks for adding that idea to the Ideas forum, Chris Jensen!
Your use of keyword_desc to log info on the genesis of each custom element is really creative. Thanks for that idea!
For custom items in T_DEFAULTS I've actually created a separate Organization, but that works a little less well now that we've become a consortium.