Working with Templates

Templates enable you to store application and dimension configuration information or selected metadata information in an offline file for use in other Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Data Management environments.

Use templates to transfer applications, dimensions, or specific metadata objects across environments (for example, from a test environment to a production environment) or to get a quick start in new implementations.

Cloud EDM supports two types of template exports:

  • Application Export: Export entire applications or dimensions along with all related metadata objects.
  • Granular Export: Export individually selected metadata objects across supported artifact types for more targeted, incremental migrations.

To use a template, you export content from the source environment to a .json file, and then import that template in the target environment.

  • For application exports, you export a full application or dimension and all of its related metadata.
  • For granular exports, you select specific metadata objects (across one or more artifact types) to include in the template.

Templates contain metadata only and do not include any data, requests, or transaction history.

Best Practice

If you are creating an application in a test environment that you plan to transfer to an existing production environment, it is a best practice to refresh your test environment with a current snapshot of your production environment first, and then create the application to be transferred. This ensures that global objects such as properties and views have the same IDs in both environments.

Caution:

Templates are designed to migrate changes from one environment to another. For that reason, it is important to designate a source system where all changes are made and a target system where changes are migrated to. Do not make changes in both environments. You can use migration snapshots to resynchronize your environments if needed. See Best Practices in Migration Scenario Examples.

Considerations

  • You must be a Service Administrator or have the Migrations - Administer granular role (see Understanding Granular Roles and Permissions) to import and export applications and dimensions to templates.
  • Application exports include complete applications or dimensions and all dependent artifacts (such as global connections). Granular exports include only the selected metadata objects and do not automatically include all dependencies. When using granular exports, ensure that required dependent objects exist in the target environment or are included in the template in order to avoid import errors.
  • When an application is transferred to the target environment:
    • If the application owner from the source environment also exists in the target environment, they are preserved as the application owner in the target environment.
    • If the application owner from the source environment does not exist in the target environment, a Service Administrator must assign an owner to the application in the target environment.
  • You can transfer new or existing applications, dimensions, or supported metadata objects. The template import process updates existing applications, dimensions, or metadata objects in the target environment by creating objects that do not already exist and modifying existing objects. See Updating an Existing Artifact using a Template.
  • You can transfer active applications only.
  • You can exclude archived data chain objects from template imports if the archived objects in the source environment do not already exist in the target environment.

    Note:

    Objects that are dependent on an archived object are also excluded from the template import if they do not exist in the target environment. If a dependent object would be partially excluded, the object will appear in the template preview or import with a warning message indicating it could not be imported.

    For example, if you exclude an archived dimension during the import and the dimension does not already exist in the target environment, then objects such as dimension bindings, node types, policies, and extracts are also excluded from the template import if they don't already exist in the target environment.

  • You can transfer both applications and dimensions in a single template file. For example, you can select a GL application and two dimensions from a Planning application. Note, however, that selecting an application will automatically include all of the dimensions in that application. You cannot select an application and then select only a subset of dimensions within that application. So, if the GL application has three dimensions you can select two dimensions by themselves, but if you select the whole application then all three dimensions are automatically included.

    Tip:

    If you have node type convertors or subscriptions across multiple applications, it can be helpful to transfer those applications and dimensions in a single template file. For example, if you have a subscription between an Account viewpoint in a GL application and an Account viewpoint in a Planning application, you can transfer the GL application as well as the Account dimension in the Planning application that contains the subscribing viewpoint in a single template file.
  • When transferring dimensions, the application that contains the dimension must exist in the target environment.
  • To transfer an application or a dimension between environments, both environments must be on the same release version.
  • When importing a template, if a user or group exists in both the source and target environment, the following user and group references for the associated objects are imported:
    • Permissions
    • Policy users and groups
    • Subscription Assignees
    • View filters for users and groups

    If a user or group in the source environment does not exist in the target, the associated user or group reference are not transferred. A message is displayed indicating the missing users and groups in the target environment and the associated objects that were not imported.

  • Both the source and target applications or dimensions must exist in the target environment in order to import node type converters and subscriptions. Transfer both the source and target applications in the same template file, or else ensure that you import the source application or dimension for converters and subscriptions first, so that when you import the target application or dimension the converters and subscriptions get created.
  • If you are transferring a dimension with properties that use a node data type to reference other dimensions, those source dimensions must already exist in the target system. If they do not, either transfer those source dimensions first or use an application template to transfer all of the dimensions in the same template file.
  • When you import the following global objects, if the object already exists in the target environment with the same name but a different ID, the source object is renamed in the target environment to make it unique:
    • Properties
    • Views
    • Lookup Sets
    • Global Connections
  • After you export an application or a dimension to a template, you can review the contents of the template file in a .json viewer.

    Caution:

    Manually editing the template file is not supported.