Using Siebel Tools > Managing Repositories > Viewing, Renaming, Comparing, and Configuring Repositories >

How Siebel Tools Minimizes the Data That it Processes during Exports and Imports

You can use Siebel Tools to create a Siebel Delta File (SDF), which is a type of file that is similar to an SIF file except that an SIF file contains the entire definition of an object, while the SDF file contains only information about modifications to an object. The SDF file contains enough information about the object hierarchy so that it can get the modified information.

For example, assume you use Siebel Tools to modify the contents of a comment field that resides in the Contact business component. Assume you use one of the following file types to move this modification from a source environment to a destination environment:

• SIF file. Siebel CRM exports the entire Contact business component into an SIF file, and then imports this file into the destination environment. It must compare each part of data that the SIF file contains to the counterpart data that the repository contains that resides in the destination environment.
• SDF File. Siebel CRM exports only the contents of the comment field. It does not export the entire Contact business component. This export is similar to the export that Siebel Tools does with an SIF file except that Siebel Tools does the export according to the object tag or object tag and time. For more information about object tags, see Managing Modifications That Developers Make to Repositories. For more information about using SDF files, see Exporting Only Modified Objects to an Archive and Importing Only Modified Objects from an Archive.