Introduction

The JS7 - Inventory provides the functionality to import and to export scheduling objects such as workflows, calendars, schedules etc.

• Import an export can be used
  • for migration purposes when upgrading between JS7 minor/major releases,
  • as part of a rollout strategy for example to rollout from dev -> test -> prod environments. A more elaborated rollout strategy includes to use JS7 - Inventory Git Integration.
• Import and export
  • include scheduling objects only, not the JS7 - Deployment History and not the JS7 - Daily Plan History,
  • therefore are not a replacement for backups, however, they can be used to restore a single version of any scheduling object.

Export

Export Operation

The export operation is available from the Export button in the Configuration->Inventory view like this:

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When hitting the Submit button the export file is created and is offered for download.

Export File

The export file is an archive in .zip or .tar.gz format. Starting from the above example that exported the Examples.Unix folder the root of the export file looks like this:

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The object type is indicated by the respective extension such as .calendar.json, .workflow.json etc.

Import

Import Operation

The import operation is available from the Import button in the Configuration->Inventory view like this:

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The Drag & Drop zone and the Choose Files for Upload button can be used to import scheduling objects from a file.

Consider that any objects are put to the not deployed and not released status respectively when imported.

Relational Consistency

The import operation considers relational consistency:

• Assume a workflow and a corresponding schedule that creates orders for the JS7 - Daily Plan to be available with the JOC Cockpit inventory.
  • When updating the workflow from an import file that does not contain the corresponding schedule then the existing schedule will automatically relate to the updated workflow. This similarly applies to any object references. This operation requires the above Overwrite option to be in place during import as otherwise the workflow would not be updated.
  • If the Overwrite option is not in place during import but instead one of the Add Prefix or Add Suffix options is used then during import a new workflow will be created with a unique name specified by the prefix/suffix. In this situation the imported schedule - even if not subject to object name collision - will accordingly receive the same prefix/suffix and will relate to the newly created workflow.
• Assume a schedule to be imported that holds a reference to a workflow available with the inventory.
  • If the workflow is not included with the import file then the imported schedule will reference the existing workflow.
  • If a schedule with the same name exists in the inventory and the Add Prefix or Add Suffix options are in place then a new schedule will be created that references the existing workflow. As a result the workflow will be referenced by two schedules, the existing schedule and the newly imported schedule, that both create orders for the Daily Plan.

Export/Import for Rollout

Export/import is a valid strategy to perform rollout operations, for example from dev -> test -> prod environments.

At the same time this requires some discipline about the nature of scheduling objects to be local to a specific environment or to be prepared for rollout across environments.