In Smart Office 10.0.4 settings files and pre-defined widgets definitions have been moved into the GDBC database instead of reside as files on disk. At the same time as using a database instead of files increases the possibilities on new functionality in Smart Office it also reduces the simplicity of viewing configuration files.

With the new Import/Export Manager administration tool it is possible to export all settings files, pre-defined widget definition file and also M3 and S3 links files (even if they are still located in the file system).

The new tool can be used for several things.

–          Quick backup of files before modifying settings, predefined widgets or links.

–          Move configuration files from one installation to another. For example from the test environment to the production environment.

–          If you are an Infor consultant or Infor partner you can package pre-defined widgets and/or M3 or S3 links and have them in your offering to customers.

Export

When doing an export you can choose what types of files to include in the export. Currently there three types files settings, pre-defined widgets and links.

All files are exported to a single zip file, the content can be extracted and viewed and even modified even if I do not recommend doing that.

Import

When importing an already exported file the tool will analyze the file specified and let you choose from the content of the file what to import.

When importing, the content of the import file will be merged with what already exists on the server. So for example having a settings file with settings B and C in an exported file and that file is imported to a server where the same settings files exists but with the settings A and B. The result on the server will be that the settings file will have the settings A, B and C. The value of setting B will of course be the value from the imported file. The Smart Office client ignores settings that it does know about so having to many settings will not affect the Smart Office client. Whenever an upgrade is performed on the server, settings in a settings file that are not used any more are deleted.

Remember that some settings files have a customized UI in the settings editor and will only show those settings that it knows. Examples of customized UIs in the settings editor are Mango UI, Mango Core, MForms and S3 Client.

The merge functionality works the same way for pre-defined widgets and links, nothing is removed when doing an import. Widgets and links are being added or replacing an existing value. It is this functionality that makes it possible to package specific M3 or S3 links and widget content and bring to a customer.

The only thing that is not merged is if choosing to include role values and roles with the Overwrite role values and roles checkbox, if that check box is checked then all existing role values on the server will be removed and replaced with what is imported. This happens per settings file. If only Mango.Core.xml is included in the import file, Mango.Core.xml is the only file affected on the server.