Release Objects to Another Environment › Exporting and Importing › Baseline the Release Version of the Objects › Perform an Export › Export a Folder › Content Package Objects

Content Package Objects

Complex processes can use various objects including operators, icons, resources, datasets, and other processes. They can be distributed among multiple folders with unrelated objects in an automation library. This complexity presents the following potential issues:

• A user can have difficulty working with only the objects that are required for a deployment or subsequent update.
• A developer working with different objects in different folders can have difficulty tracking or finding specific objects.
• An administrator exporting updated objects for deployment to a production environment can forget a required object.

To export all of the related automation objects, you can assemble them in a folder and export that folder as a content package to another CA Process Automation environment. Content packages are useful because they let you bundle related objects in a single container and then assign a release version to them. Then when the objects are imported into a new production environment, they cannot be modified unless the imported objects are copied. You cannot edit or delete any of the objects in the content package. This safeguards those objects from being altered in a potentially harmful way. In other words, you can always roll back to the original content package if you want to reverse any unwanted changes that are made to the objects. Since the release versions for the objects are nonmodifiable, content designers in the source design environment can identify the exported and imported object versions if there is a need to troubleshoot.

In comparison, if you export objects by themselves or through a folder, they are modifiable in a new environment. Any objects that are imported through by themselves or through a folder (instead of a content package) are not required to have a release version. These objects can be modified directly. It is good practice to export a folder as a content package when you are transitioning a new process with its components from the design environment to the production environment.

Note: You cannot export multiple folders or automation objects at a time. Create a folder and then assemble all the objects to be exported as a single content package. You cannot export a folder as a content package that already contains a content package or a package.

You can view imported content packages in the Library.

• When you expand a content package in the right-hand pane, its child objects (that are part of the current release) display underneath the content package.
• You can view the latest release information for a folder or content package in their properties. Right-click the object, select Properties, then click the Versions tab. The Audit Trail tab records any changes made to the folder or content package.

You can also view all the imported content packages in the Content Packages palette of the Operations tab.

• If you click the content package in the left-hand pane, its properties display in the right-hand pane.
• If you click the individual objects it contains in the left-hand pane, the object properties display in the right-hand pane.
• If the content package contains a process, the right-hand side displays a graphical view of the instances.

More Information

Release Versions