Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities
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Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities Document #: 12.0.02019053801 Last Modified: 1/3/2020 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities Copyright Information Copyright © 2020 Aras Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Aras Corporation 100 Brickstone Square Suite 100 Andover, MA 01810 Phone: 978-806-9400 Fax: 978-794-9826 E-mail: [email protected] Website: https://www.aras.com Notice of Rights Copyright © 2020 by Aras Corporation. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, V1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/). Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder. Aras Innovator, Aras, and the Aras Corp "A" logo are registered trademarks of Aras Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Notice of Liability The information contained in this document is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose or a warranty of non- infringement. Aras shall have no liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this document or by the software or hardware products described herein. 2020 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 2 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities Table of Contents Send Us Your Comments ............................................................................................. 4 Document Conventions ................................................................................................ 5 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 6 2 Data Model ................................................................................................................ 7 3 Using Package Import Export Utilities ................................................................... 8 3.1 AML Packages ............................................................................................................................. 8 3.1.1 The File Structure .......................................................................................................... 8 3.1.2 The Manifest File ........................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Export Tool ................................................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Import Tool ................................................................................................................................. 11 3.4 Console Upgrade Tool ............................................................................................................... 13 3.5 Package Definition Tool ............................................................................................................. 14 3.5.1 The Package Definition Tool GUI ................................................................................ 15 3.5.2 The Package Definition Tool Command Line .............................................................. 15 3.6 Creating a Package Definition from the Aras Innovator UI ........................................................ 16 3.6.1 What to include in a Solutions AML Package.............................................................. 18 2020 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 3 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities Send Us Your Comments Aras Corporation welcomes your comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of this document. Your input is an important part of the information used for future revisions. o Did you find any errors? o Is the information clearly presented? o Do you need more information? If so, where and what level of detail? o Are the examples correct? Do you need more examples? o What features did you like most? If you find any errors or have any other suggestions for improvement, indicate the document title, and the chapter, section, and page number (if available). You can send comments to us in the following ways: Email: [email protected] Subject: Aras Innovator Documentation Or, Postal service: Aras Corporation 100 Brickstone Square Suite 100 Andover, MA 01810 Attention: Aras Innovator Documentation Or, FAX: 978-794-9826 Attn: Aras Innovator Documentation If you would like a reply, provide your name, email address, address, and telephone number. If you have usage issues with the software, visit https://www.aras.com/support/ 2020 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 4 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities Document Conventions The following table highlights the document conventions used in the document: Document Conventions Convention Description This shows the names of menu items, dialog boxes, dialog Bold box elements, and commands. Example: Click OK. Code examples appear in courier text. It may represent Code text you type or data you read. Yellow highlight Code with yellow highlight is used to draw attention to the code that is being indicated in the content. Yellow highlight Red color text with yellow highlight is used to indicate the with red text code parameter that needs to be changed or replaced. Italics Reference to other documents. Note: Notes contain additional useful information. Warning contains important information. Pay special Warning attention to information highlighted this way. Successive menu Successive menu choices may appear with a greater than choices sign (-->) between the items that you will select consecutively. Example: Navigate to File --> Save --> OK. 2020 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 5 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities 1 Overview The main implementation method for a new functionality in Aras Innovator is creation of a set of items that encapsulate the desired functionality - some items represent business objects (ItemTypes and their instances), some support user interaction (Forms, etc.), some may implement business logic (Methods), etc. Because all Aras Innovator items are stored in the database it creates numerous problems with identifying differences between different installations of Aras Innovator, keeping track of them, merging the differences, and upgrading to new releases. In order to implement a better mechanism for solving these problems, Aras Corporation has created a set of tools called ‘Package Import Export Utilities’, whose purpose is for it import, export and management of AML packages. Outlined here are some of the main ideas that this set of tools based on. First, the idea of representing each item in a form of a separate AML files, which in its turn would allow: The use of a visual comparison between different versions of the same AML file. The use of third party visual merge tools for merging differences between different versions of the same AML file. Keeping custom solutions or any set of related items including those that implement core Aras Innovator functionality in XML form in a file structure and keep track of their changes. Second, the idea of organizing a set of logically related items into a package. Together these concepts allow simplifying the process of importing and exporting Aras Innovator core, BRS’s, and custom solutions to and from the database. This allows administrators to keep track of modifications, merge differences between packages, and migrate these changes between databases. The main goals for Package Import Export Utilities set are: The ability to create and modify AML packages in the database. The ability to export the some or all of the components of an AML package from a database to the file system in a form of a hierarchal set of AML files. The ability to import a hierarchy of AML files that represent a package to a database. If the package already exists in the database, the import process must provide an ability to automatically merge the differences between items into the database from corresponding imported AML. 2020 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 6 Aras Innovator 12 Package Import Export Utilities 2 Data Model Conceptually each package is a collection of item IDs. There are a certain ItemTypes that were introduces to support package functionality. The following represents the common set of items that defines an AML package: PackageElement – The Package element represents ID number of the item that has been defined in the database. PackageGroup – This represents the type of ItemType (Method, List, etc.) that the Package Elements are added from. This ItemType also defines the name of the folder the Package Element is exported to in the file structure. PackageDefinition – This is the package itself. It represents the collection of package groups that makes up a package, and allow for the grouping of one package separate from the next. PackageDependsOn – This is a relationship type that establish dependencies between packages PackageReferencedElement – This is a relationship on PackageDependsOn type that