Export

The format in which data is exported by default is a standardised USoft XML format. In this format, XML element names map to table names, XML attribute values map to column names, and XML attribute values map to column values.

This format is used across the entire USoft platform with the exception of USoft Benchmark, which still uses the obsolete TDF format, and conventional Export Tasks in USoft Batch (now part of USoft Definer), which still output comma-separated values.

For convenience and for backward compatibility only, Delivery Manager offers "Export to TDF" as a separate action.

For details on the USoft XML format generally, see the "USoft XML Specification" section in USoft Definer Help. For details on the implementation of this format in Delivery Manager, see the individual Help topic for actions.

Delivery Manager outputs to the variety of the USoft XML format that supports multi-table data in a single output file, even if the exported data is from a single table:

<multi-table-root>

  <underscored-object-name-plural>

    <table column="value" column="value" ... />

...

For example:

<MultiExport>

  <Accredited_Persons>

    <PERSON ID="177" FAMILY_NAME="Haynes" FIRST_NAME="Deborah"/>

    <PERSON ID="112" FAMILY_NAME="Smith" FIRST_NAME="John"/>

  ...

Delivery Manager outputs data by application, where application is either a USoft application (USD, USTESTER, USAUTH, USERVICE, UDELIVER) or an application that you have defined yourself. USoft applications map to USoft tool names:

The application name is an indication of the purpose of the data:

When you export to the obsolete TDF format, you specify the destination file. It is common practice to use the .tdf file extension.

When you export to the default XML format, you specify the destination folder. Delivery Manager writes to this folder, using default outputfile names:

Data exported to the XML format are re-importable. Exactly how exported data are re-importable is determined by settings of the usoft-xml processing instruction, which looks like this:

<?usoft-xml version="1.0" action="multi-tables-import" use-io-formats="no" verify-original-values="no" return-corrected-records ="yes"?>

For details on this processing instruction, see the "Processing instructions for XML import" help topic in USoft Definer Help.

Export files may be re-imported:

•By calling a Delivery Manager Import... action and passing the export file as a parameter. For details, see the individual Help topics for Import actions.

•By calling XML.IMPORT... . For details, see the Help on the XML internal component in USoft Definer Help.

Delivery Manager offers the following standard procedures for exporting data, or export actions:

For general purposes of repository management, call the Export all appdata action, except for exporting USoft Definer data (application = USD), for which you call the Export metadata action.

Delivery Manager allows you to indicate the subset of data in an application that are "technical data". "Technical data" are to be (re)delivered from Development as opposed to being determined or manipulated by end users in Production. To export only this subset, call the Export deliverable appdata action as an alternative to the Export all appdata action.

USoft Delivery Manager also performs export actions in a release management context. It offers special release actions that are based on an export action. The release action exports data automatically to a subfolder of the current release folder:

These actions have the special feature of producing, by default, not just a standard export file, but also a "diff" file. A "diff" file contains differences between the exported data and the version of the same data that was exported in the previous release: