Migrating Meta Data - The Release field

Something I have now implemented on a couple of clients and I find quite useful is an enhancement to ADM (Application Deplyment Manager) to group meta data items together for the purpose of a release. Out of the box, ADM has data types for migrating LOVs, Views, Assignment Rules, etc from a source environment to a target environment. The mechanism provides for a search specification to determine which records of that data type should be migrated. This search specification can get quite complicated over time though.

What I propose is to extend the base record of each meta data object with a new column signifying the release. Simply add the column X_RELEASE to the parent table (S_ASGN_GRP for Assignment Rules for instance). Expose this column in the business component the table is based on, and in the applet the BC is based on. I recommend a varchar data type which will provide a little flexibility in how you version your releases. Finally, modify the ADM integration object. These are the ones prefixed with 'UDA'. You will need to add the same Release field (corresponding to the BC field name) to the Integration Component corresponding to the BC the field was added to.

Now, in the GUI you can mark all the record of that meta data object with the release description, such as '1.0'. In the Deployment Filter of the Deployment Project/Session, you can then specify, [Release] = '1.0'.