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. 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 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.