Comparison of Copying and Cloning Individual Objects

Cloning an object differs from copying an object as follows:

• Instances and Definitions. You can copy object definitions as well as object instances. You can clone only object instances.
• Allowed Targets. You can copy an object definition or instance into the same container—Domain, Application Area, or Work Area—that contains the source object. In that case, the Copy operation creates a copy of the object with the name Copy_of_source_object_name. You can clone an object instance only to a different Work Area; not the same Work Area that contains the source object instance.
• Replacement. If an object of the same type with the same name exists in the target Work Area, the Copy operation creates a new object in the target Work Area with a different name (_1 appended or final number incremented by 1). The Clone operation upgrades the target object with a duplicate of the source object (including the same name with nothing appended) unless the target is already identical to the source, in which case the Clone operation takes no action on the target object. Neither operation (Copy or Clone) compares the version number of the source and target objects (see Version Number below).

  If an object of the same type with the same name does not exist in the target Work Area, the Clone and Copy operations both create a duplicate of the source object, with the same name, in the target Work Area.

• Implicit Cloning of Mappings and Table instances. If you clone a Program, Load Set, Data Mart, Business Area, Report Set, or Workflow that is mapped to one or more Table instances in the same Work Area, the Clone operation automatically clones each Table instance and the mapping as well. If a source Table instance is in a different Work Area, the system copies the mapping to the same Table instance. The Copy operation does not copy any objects except those that are explicitly selected.

  If a Table instance with the same name already exists in the target Work Area of a Clone operation with implicit cloning of a Table instance, the system checks to see if the Table instance in the target Work Area was already cloned from the same source Table instance or not. If it was, the clone proceeds without warning and replaces the Table instance. If the target Table instance was originally defined in the target Work Area, or if it was cloned or copied from a different Table instance, you receive an error and cannot proceed with the cloning operation.

  Note:

  Cloning upgrades Table instances and all other instances; it does not delete data in Table instances unless the source Table instance has been modified in a destructive way, such as removing a Column. In that case, you get a warning when you make the destructive change that the change may prevent upgrading during the next installation. However, you do not receive a warning during the Clone operation.

  Changing a table's Blinding flag to Y from N is not considered a destructive change. Changing the Blinding flag from N to Y is allowed if there is no dummy data loaded.

• Validation Status. When you copy an object, the new object's validation status is always set to Development, no matter what the validation status of the source object was. When you clone an object, the new object has the same validation status as the source object.

  Note:

  When you copy or clone an object, none of its validation supporting information links are maintained. They are maintained when you move an object.
• Version Number. When you copy an object, the new object's version number is always set to 1, no matter what the version number of the source object was. When you clone an object, the Clone operation increments the version number of the target object by 1.

• Security. The same privileges are required to copy and to clone objects: Read privileges for the object type in the source location and Create or Modify privileges for the object type in the target location.

For information about cloning an entire Work Area, see Cloning Work Areas for Testing and Production.