Importing Activation Cartridge Projects

You can import data from an external source into Design Studio workspace or load earlier versions of cartridge projects with legacy data definitions. This allows you to utilize the imported data or components and modify based on requirement.

When importing Activation cartridge projects into Design Studio, see the following topics:

About Imported Activation Cartridge Projects

You can import Activation Cartridge projects from an external source into your Design Studio workspace. For example, if you have purchased cartridges from Oracle, you can import them into Design Studio and reuse their components when you build Activation Service cartridge projects. Also, you can load data directly from an Oracle Communications ASAP environment. This approach is useful when you want to obtain a complete snapshot of all the data in an ASAP environment.

Design Studio for Activation supports loading of earlier versions of cartridge projects with legacy data definitions (that do not use the Data Dictionary). The legacy data definitions are migrated during import into a design time Data Dictionary that contains all of the data definitions within a single Data Dictionary file.

After importing an existing licensed cartridge, Design Studio requires that you specify where to store the Data Dictionary content for the cartridge project. Select one of the following locations:

  • The Activation project associated with the existing licensed cartridge

  • A specified project (a new project that you create for the Data Dictionary or an existing project)

Note:

An existing Activation cartridge that is imported, modified, and exported using the latest version of Design Studio is importable in earlier versions of Design Studio. This enables modifications to legacy cartridges using the latest version of Design Studio.

You can use the following methods to import data into your Design Studio workspace:

You import Activation Network cartridge projects (from a location outside of your workspace) to set up your workspace. You can import cartridge projects in a zipped (ZIP or TAR files) or unzipped format.

You can import several network cartridges into the workspace to utilize their components (such as atomic actions, action processors, and NE templates) when setting up Activation Service cartridge projects. Also, you can import a service cartridge project to use as a starting point and modify the project as needed.

You can import one or more network cartridges into the workspace (instead of building them from scratch) to use as starting point for creating new cartridges (for example, to make minor changes to cartridges for the next release) or to compare with other cartridges. See "Creating New Activation Cartridge Projects" for more information about creating new cartridges.

Note:

To import cartridges into your workspace, you can zip up cartridge projects in ZIP or TAR format and export them to an archive file. This method produces a snapshot of the entire workspace as originally created (including one or multiple environments and SAR file) and includes any custom artifacts.

This method is useful when you have a project that contains a complex configuration with multiple dependencies between cartridges (for example, one or more Activation Service cartridge projects that depend on one or more Activation Network cartridge projects).

While it is possible to manually recreate the configuration by importing each of the SAR files from the original cartridges, some data loss may occur if you have custom artifacts that were not included in the original SAR file.

Note:

To obtain Activation Network cartridge projects from Oracle, you can retrieve individual SAR files from the portal and import them into Design Studio. Each cartridge is self-contained (no dependencies exist).

Importing Activation Cartridges from SAR Files

A SAR file is one method for storing an ASAP configuration within a single artifact. Import cartridges from SAR files when you want to load into Design Studio cartridges that have been packaged in a SAR file. For example, when new Oracle Activation Network cartridge projects are available, they are packaged into a SAR file and posted to the portal in a zipped format (TAR file) for download. You can download the TAR file, then extract the SAR file from the TAR file.

Additionally, when you build a new Activation Service cartridge project, Design Studio generates a SAR file. When you have finished creating the service model, you can email the SAR file to another Design Studio user for import or check it into a source control system.

Note:

Importing activation cartridges from deployable archive (SAR) files using the Activation Archive Import Wizard creates an activation project that has only limited information compared to what was available when the cartridge was originally built. Oracle recommends that you distribute and deploy Design Studio Projects rather than SAR files.

If you want to make changes to activation cartridges that you imported from deployable archive (SAR) files using the Activation Archive Import Wizard, then you must also manually copy the build.xml file to the src/ directory.

To import a cartridge from a SAR file:

  1. From the File menu, select Import.

    The Import-Select dialog box appears.

  2. Select Oracle Communications Design Studio Wizards, then select Activation Archive (SAR) and click Next.

    The Activation Archive Import Wizard appears in both the cases.

  3. In the Activation Archive Import Wizard, click Browse to search for a SAR file that contains the network cartridge you need to create your service cartridge.

    After you select a SAR file, the fields in the wizard populate automatically for your cartridge.

  4. Click Next.

    Cartridge projects that were created in Design Studio populate the Cartridge Type field automatically with the correct type (this is a non-editable field).

    Note:

    For cartridge projects not created in Design Studio, you must select the type of cartridge project you are importing.
  5. Click Next.

    The names of the two data schema entities (one entity for simple data elements and one entity for data structures) to which all the atomic action parameters of this cartridge project are added appear.

  6. (Optional) Select the location of the data schema entities.

    Note:

    The default location of the data schema entities for the cartridge project is the cartridge project that is being imported.
  7. Click Finish to start the import.

    A new Activation Service cartridge project appears in the Studio Projects view.

Note:

Before working with an imported cartridge project, see "Importing Activation Cartridge Projects" for more information about read-only statuses and working with sealed and unsealed cartridge projects.

Related Topics

Importing Activation Cartridge Projects

Activation Project Editor

Importing Cartridge Projects from Environments

If you have an existing ASAP implementation, you can point Design Studio at an ASAP environment and import the configuration (service model, JAR files, and network elements) contained in that environment. This feature eliminates the need to manually run scripts that extract data from an environment into a SAR file and import that SAR file into Design Studio.

You can use this feature to obtain a snapshot of an environment configured from multiple sources, such as insert scripts, XML, or multiple Design Studio instances. In this scenario, it is possible to load the service model and network element configuration into Design Studio directly from an ASAP environment.

Additionally, importing from an existing ASAP environment is useful when you have just begun using Design Studio as a service modeling tool and you have an existing ASAP implementation.

To import a cartridge project from an environment:

  1. From the Studio menu, select Show Environment Perspective.

    The Cartridge Management editor opens.

  2. In the Environment view, select a Design Studio environment.

  3. In the Cartridges area, click Query.

    The Test Environment Connection dialog box appears.

  4. Enter the Cartridge Management web service user name and password and click OK.

    You are now connected to the environment on which ASAP is running. In the Cartridges area, the list of cartridge projects is refreshed.

  5. Select a cartridge project.

    In the Deployed Versions area, the deployed versions of this cartridge project are available.

  6. Select a deployed version and click Import.

  7. Click Finish.

Related Topics

Importing Activation Cartridge Projects

Cartridge Management View

Activation Project Editor