We're pleased to announce that DPBuddy 3.1 is now available. The main feature of this release is the DPBuddy command-line interface (CLI). All of DPBuddy's Ant tasks can now be executed as shell commands without having to create or run Ant build files.

For example, to import a file, you can run the following command:

dpbuddy import -file services.zip -assertObjectsUp -save

All attributes of DPBuddy's Ant tasks are translated into command line options, so that DPBuddy commands have the same capabilities as Ant tasks.

Another important feature is the substantially expanded "import" command/task. It provides the following new capabilities:

• Automatic rollback to a checkpoint in case of an import failure.
• Creating the checkpoint before the import.
• Quiescing the domain before the import and unquiescing it after the import.
• Checking that the ports used by the imported services are open after the import.
• Resetting the domain's configuration before the import to clean the domain.
• Setting the domain's comments, which could be used for version tracking.
• Resolving template variables without having to provide an empty "transform" element.

Other new features in this release include the following:.

• A simplified way of specifying DataPower objects in export, assertState, quiesce and other tasks/commands. You can now provide regular expressions defining object types and names via attributes instead of having to define a nested element in Ant, e.g., <dp:export file="${export.zip.file}" classPattern="(WSGatew.*|.*Firewall.*)"/>
• Copy command/task now supports the "incudes" attribute/option so you don't have to specify the nested fileset.
• Copy/command task now supports the "flushCache" attribute/option to automatically clear the XML cache after copying.
• You can specify the environment prefix using the "env" attribute/option instead of having to use the "environment" task.
• Export now gets rid of unused namespace declarations, so the resulting XML file is cleaner.
• The ability to delete all objects related to a particuar service. DataPower does not do it by default, but using DPBuddy you can now clear all artifacts related to a particular service.
• "assertOpenPorts" task/command to verify that specific ports are actually open on the device.
• "testConnection" task.

Download DPBuddy 3.1

New and Updated Guides and Tutorials

• How to Track Versions of DataPower Services. You can easily achieve end-to-end traceability of all deployed services and domains with DPBuddy.

If you’d like to try implementing version traceability, download the trial version of DPBuddy if you haven’t done so already.

Upcoming DPBuddy Release

We’re on track to release DPBuddy 3.0.1 later this month, April, 2014. Some of the newly added features include:

• Ability to delete all objects related to a particular service. DataPower does not do it by default, but using DPBuddy you will be able to remove all artifacts related to a given service or multiple services.
• Ability to update the domain’s “comments” field as part of “import” — this will simplify version tracking of deployed domains.
• Ability to check that specific ports are actually open on the device after import. Simply provide “assertPorts” attribute/option to the “import” command and DPBuddy will make sure that the ports are active.

Other new features coming in 3.0.1 include:

• Command line support.You’ll be able to run any DPBuddy task directly from the command line without have to go through Ant. For example, to import a file, you’ll be able to simply run this command directly from shell/DOS prompt:

  dpbuddy import -file services.zip -assertObjectsUp -save 
  

  
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A version traceability mechanism should allow us to see versions of all our application components. An applications with UI front-end could have a “help/about” page or use other ways to show its version to an end user or to a developer. On the back-end, the version might be embedded into a manifest file or an application-specific property/configuration file. The version is typically associated with a code baseline stored in a version control repository.

This article explains how to track version of DataPower objects and services.