Urgent: Advice needed on RPD patching and Original Master Repository

Jerry S.

I need the opinions of those who are knowledgeable about RPD patches.

One of our consultants has said that we can apply a patch created using an old Original Master Repository, to a Production RPD that comes from a newer Original Master Repository,

and that if the changes look like they are correct, then the patching worked.

I was always told that you should never apply a patch created from one Original Master Repository, to an RPD that comes from another Original Master Repository.

I am worried that even though the changes look okay, there may be some type of hidden internal corruption that may occur,

resulting in problems somewhere down the line.

Is the consultants approach correct? If not, can you please elaborate?

Just to try and make this all a little clearer, here is a sample scenario that I hope will help:

(In this scenario, all patches will be applied using "Patch Repository Merge" as the merge type)

We have the following initial situation:

   Original Master Repository: BASELINE-1.

   Production repository that has evolved, over time, from changes made to BASELINE-1: PRODUCTION-1.

1. Using BASELINE-1.rpd,  as the Original Master Repository, two independent patches are created, involving changes to two different and independent subject areas.

          BASELINE-1_PATCH-1.xml

          BASELINE-1_PATCH-2.xml

        

2. BASELINE-1_PATCH-1.xml is applied to PRODUCTION-1.rpd, yielding PRODUCTION-2.rpd. (BASELINE-1 is designated as Original Master Repository)

3. PRODUCTION-2.rpd, is now the new production repository.

We decide that we have too many patches to contend with, so we decide that a new baseline should be established.

4. PRODUCTION-2.rpd is now copied as BASELINE-2.rpd, and becomes the new Original Master Repository.

We now have the following situation:

   Original Master Repository: BASELINE-2.

   Production repository: PRODUCTION-2.

5. The consultant says that BASELINE-1_PATCH-2.xml can now be applied to PRODUCTION-2. (BASELINE-2 is designated as Original Master Repository)

    even though BASELINE-1_PATCH-2.xml was created using BASELINE-1.rpd as the Original Master Repository.