Disclaimer and Caution

Disclaimer

The information in the Partner Developer Portal and Partner Development Manuals is provided to assist Partner customers, employees, consultants, and third-party developers in using, troubleshooting, configuring, extending, and otherwise maintaining the Partner Platform and applications built upon it.

Openness is one of Partner’s core values, and in this spirit we provide as much information as we can. Publication of this information does not, however, imply any sort of warranty, license or support. You must have a current license agreement with Partner to use the software, and you must have a support agreement with Partner to receive any assistance.

Even with appropriate licensing and support agreements in place, using the information provided here will likely be at your own risk. Many of the topics covered are highly technical and powerful; incorrect usage may damage or disable a working system.

Finally, keep in mind that much of this documentation is the live, working documentation used by Partner’s own employees. It is always under revision, and while we do our best to ensure its accuracy, we cannot guarantee that it is up-to-date or correct.

Caution: Here There Be Dragons

Just as with any complex machine, once you get under the hood of the Partner Platform and start making changes to its working parts, bad things can happen. Be aware of this and plan for problems as part of your routine process.

Always try changes in a safe testing environment before deploying them into a production environment. Always have backups of your system and ensure that they work.

Do not assume that this documentation is correct or complete, that the capabilities it describes are recommended or supported by Partner, or indeed that any changes you are making are supported by Partner.

Caution: Unsupported Activities

Development-type changes to your Partner system are not generally supported by the standard Partner support contract. They are therefore at your own risk, and Partner may charge service fees for troubleshooting or correcting any problems caused by such changes.

Consider the analogy of an appliance. Problems with normal usage, or defects in manufacturing, are usually covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and you can also get an extended-service contract to cover problems from normal wear-and-tear. However, if you take the appliance apart and make changes to it that are not part of normal usage, it is very unlikely that any problems which occur will be covered by either the warranty or service contract.

Partner support services are covered and detailed in specific agreements between you and us and those always take precedence over general documentation. Feel free to contact us if you would like a developer-level support agreement to assist with your development activities.

Caution: Partner Workbench

The Partner Workbench is not an end-user tool. It is designed for power users, IT and support staff, and third-party or customer developers.

It is intentionally designed to be powerful rather than safe. Think “chainsaw, no guard”. Think “you’ll shoot yer eye out”.

Just for example, with a single click, you can:

  • delete entire directory trees
  • overwrite modules with newer or just different versions
  • launch database or web servers

You can also edit pretty much any file, for good or ill.

So, if you use the workbench, you must be prepared for an accident. It’s not a question of “whether”, it’s a question of “when”.

Therefore:

  • back up everything!
  • make a specific development installation to work and test in
  • if you use it in a normal installation, be VERY careful
  • DON’T use it in a hub installation
  • take the ../courses/workbench/index before you get started

If you work in a special, development installation, you’re pretty safe since the hub installations hold most of the critical configuration. Of course you may lose your own work...

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