About the Import and Export Batch Tools

Export files generated from V5R16 releases and later are partly supported by the import batch tool. Files generated by earlier releases are not supported. The tool ignores any unsupported commands from previous releases (except custom commands) without triggering errors, and adds that information to the report file.

If specified, the VPLMPosImport tool ignores these commands in the import file:

• Security commands
• SKILL
• Attributes that have since been removed from the security model

The import batch tool ignores commands that it can parse but not process. In many cases you can import older import files without removing unsupported content. The tool can parse syntaxes from V5R16 and later, and can process all commands except the security, skill, and custom commands. When you import older files, you must specify the version command. For example: *VERSION 204.

If specified, these commands cause execution errors:

• Definition of new attributes on existing objects
• Definition of new object types
• Custom keywords or commands

New commands in this release are only made available when using the corresponding import grammar, which is achieved by setting import version number to V6R2009-1.0 (or 206) using command *VERSION. Trying to use V6R2012x (or 208) commands with earlier import grammars will trigger an error.

Users that were created using earlier versions of the import batch cannot be used as is to execute import/export batches using this release. You must first set them as administrators explicitly, using the dedicated command +ADMIN.

You can use the VPLMPosImport or VPLMPosExport tool to display the version number of a software component such as the product installation, code (that is, JAR files), or data within the database.

For example:

VPLMPosImport –user "PLMADM"
-password "PLMADM"
–context "VPLMAdmin.Company Name.Default"
–server "https://server:8070/enovia" 
-version  

And the result shows either a general availability (GA) or hot fix (HF) version number:

V6R2013HF11

You can also use the -authenticationfile parameter to retrieve user and password information from an external authentication file instead of specifying them in the command line. The file provided for the -authenticationfile parameter should contain a line in this format:

NAME ENCRYPTED_PASSWORD_STRING

For more information, see MQL Concepts | Encrypting Passwords.

When exporting an item, all its direct dependencies (that is, the parent organization of the person) are also exported, including any dependencies of these dependencies.

When exporting a person, the export file includes details about the person's company, any parent companies, and any other dependencies of that company. The export file can be imported into a repository without encountering errors due to missing dependencies.

In addition, the export file includes all information involved in the definition of any exported object. For example, when exporting a person, the parent organization is also exported and all working contexts. The resulting export file contains all relevant information associated with the person.

The export mechanism removes possible redundancies when objects are referenced several times. For example, a set of credentials is exported once even if it is assigned to several users.

Security data, such as policies and rules, can be browsed or extracted using MQL. The VPLMPosExport tool does not export security data. MQL commands do not produce results that can subsequently be imported as is.

The export file can include licenses and credentials (formerly referred to as security contexts) assigned to users. For example:

*PERSON user1;Company Name;$;40 
+CONTEXT Reviewer.Company Name.Engineering;,;ENG,DEC 

where ENG,DEC are the licenses assigned to this person. The 40 on the first line indicates that this is a casual license. This parameter can be either 40 or 0 (0 for a full license).

If a user is assigned to several sets of credentials, the export file includes all licenses for each set of credentials. For example, if a user has these separate licenses assigned:

*PERSON user2;Company Name;$;0 
+CONTEXT Reviewer.Company Name.Engineering;,;ENG,DEC 
+CONTEXT Designer.Company Name.Standard;,;CPF

VPLMPosExport outputs the following:

*PERSON user2;Company Name;$;0 
+CONTEXT Reviewer.Company Name.Engineering;,;CPF,ENG,DEC 
+CONTEXT Designer.Company Name.Standard;,;CPF,ENG,DEC

The system creates a resource set when you create a collaborative space using any of these methods:

• At installation
• Including the *PRJ command in an import file
• Using Manage P&O and Content web console (P&O is People and Organizations)

Collaborative spaces were called Projects in prior releases. You could see the term PRM (Project Resource Management) or references to projects in object types names, or other metadata. In these cases, "Project" refers to "Collaboration Spaces."

The resource set (object type PLMPosProjectResourceMngtRef) contains system management information about the collaborative space. The resource set connects to the collaborative space via a connection object (object type PLMPosDeliverableCnx). The same connection object can connect a collaborative space to multiple resource sets.

To support replication of setup data, you can include the -exportdatasetup parameter when you export data. The export file includes +RESOURCE data for each exported collaborative space or discipline. The data contains the names of the collaborative space and resource ID, but can only be read by the import tool. That is, unlike the rest of the import file, this information is not human-readable.

When you run the import tool for a file that contains the +RESOURCE command, the tool does not create the resource set, it creates the connection between the collaborative space and the resource set. The resource set does not need to exist to create the connection. When you run the export tool, however, the resource set must already exist (or no resource information is exported).

Use the Data Setup app to export the actual resource set from the master database, and to import the resource sets into the replicated database.

The -exportdatasetup parameter only exports links to resource sets; it does not export links to other types of objects linked to a collaborative space.