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Launch the Syndeia Dashboard (see Video 1.1) and open the Repository Manager tab (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Syndeia Dashboard, Repository Manager tabIf no repository connection to GitLab is available, right-click on GitLab in the left column and select Add... Complete the form and click OK (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Adding a GitLab repository connectionIf a GitLab repository connection already appears under GitLab, but you need to add your own access credential, right-click on the repository in the left column and select Update…. Complete username and password and click Update (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Updating GitLab repository infoIn the left column, select a GitLab repository connection (GitLab @ Intercax). Your repository should appear at the top of the right side. Expand it to show some Branches and Commits, as in Figure 5. See Background section for discussion of GitLab artifact types. It may be necessary to right-click the repository and select Refresh before it can be expanded.
Figure 5 Viewing GitLab repository contents on Repository Manager tabOn the right border, click the button labeled Search Repository. In the Search Repository window under New Search, select Project or Resources in a project.
If Project is selected, select the GitLab Group to be searched from the Select group pull-down menu (refresh menu items if necessary), fill in the Text contained in the name… field and click Search.
If Resources in a project is selected, select the GitLab Workspace to be searched from the Select project pull-down menu (refresh menu items if necessary), select the GitLab Repository to be searched from the Select repository pull-down menu (refresh menu items if necessary), select branch, commit, issue, source or tag, fill in the Text contained in the name… field and click Search. In our example, we entered Intercax/HelloGitLab for project, commit andnew for Test. The result(s) of the search are shown on the right, as in Figure 6.
Click outside the Search window to close it.
Figure 6 Syndeia dashboard, Repository Manager tab, Search feature (search result highlighted in red)
To create a reference connection between a GitLab item and an element in another repository, go to the Connection Manager tab, select and expand the GitLab repository in one column and the second repository in the other. In our example in Figure 7, we have opened the Rhapsody model on the left and GitLab on the right.
Select Reference as the Connection Type in the center column.
Create a reference connection by dragging an element in one column on top of an element in the other. Confirm that you want to create a reference connection. In our example, we dragged the Flight Return activity in SysML onto the develop/README file in GitLab.
Note: In Syndeia release 3.4, it is not possible to create Model Transform inter-model connections to GitLab. Some use cases of this type may be added in future releases.
Figure 7 Syndeia dashboard, Connection Manager tab, creating reference connection
Having created the reference link, it can be used from the SysML modeling tool to access the GitLab file by right-clicking on the linked SysML element in either the Containment browser or a diagram and selecting Syndeia/Open Connected Artifacts, as in Figure 8. The linked GitLab file will appear in the user’s browser.
Figure 8 Rhapsody interface, launching connection to GitLab file from linked SysML elementThe reference link can be used to detect changes in the GitLab file from the Syndeia dashboard.
Edit the GitLab file opened in the previous step. Change some part of the file and publish a new version.
Back in the Syndeia dashboard, refresh the GitLab repository to load the latest repository contents.
In the Connection Search tab of the Syndeia dashboard, click Get All to ensure that all connections are showing. Right-click the reference connection just created and select Compare Source and Target, as in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Syndeia dashboard, Connection Search tab, comparing across reference connection
The result of the compare operation is displayed as red (Figure 10) in a difference table. The Comment field states
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“Source artifact of this connection is non-versioned. There is nothing to compare. Target artifact of this connection is README.md (version 95901…) but a newer version README.md (version 7ab76…) is available.”
Figure 10 Syndeia dashboard, Comparison Result tabThe reference connection can be updated to point to the latest version of the GitLab file by right-clicking on the connection in the Connection Search tab (Figure 9), the Comparison Result tab (Figure 10) or the Connection Browser tab (Figure 11) and selecting either Sync Source -> Target or Sync Target -> Source. The result is the same for reference connections.
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Figure 11 Syndeia dashboard, Connection Browser tab, syncing across reference connection