Seasoned Oscripters use these methodologies as taught by OT Training for Oscript.
1)Never open and change code in a OT module.
2)Back up the entire livelink system(your vm) perhaps before you start development.
3)Understand what the Requirement is and locate the Object or Objects from core code that you do not like and want to change.
4)Orphan them into your module. Oscript is not truly OOP but Orphanning means I am taking the OT signature objects/methods/features into my module.
5)Test your changes completely. Uninstall your module and ascertain that you have the system as it came from OT.
Due to the timing of you posting I am thinking that you will be doing work with CSIDE the IDE that replaced Builder .CSIDE uses java code to talk to livelink Oscript .It is still having teething problems so when I develop in CSIDE I do these ground rules.
1)The minute I have created a module with CSIDE and have it installed I will make a copy of that .oll file and call it
myuncorruptmodule.oll This has given me solace from countless hours of a broken livelink start because of corruption in the compile process. When livelink won't startup I will put my uncorrupt module ,it will start and then I go and fix my problems .In builder world it was rather difficult to introduce corrupt code into the .oll.
2)Always watch out for massive .dmp files in your <OTHOME>.If they exist then your compile is not really happening. I also don’t like auto compile so I turn it off.
3)Since you are starting out new and won’t use builder you probably won't miss the features builder had but may probably like color coding syntax look ahead etc. but for a person who has used Builder for about 16/17 years I find the CSIDE IDE just workable that is all. But it has cool features that can help with group development efforts etc. so if you are a coding house you can tie it with Code management systems etc.
4)Weblingo changes were manual in old CSIDE versions. I think they must have automated it.
Further Reading
1)OT provides a useful tool called Customizations_RT for a lot of routine tasks. I have used that as well as similar tools which are not widely available to the general customer but the ideas are the same. You will also see me post of lot of starting difficulties in the OTDN forums many of them have probably been implemented by now.
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
Certified OT Developer,Livelink ECM Champion 2008,Livelink ECM Champion 2010
