Exporting and importing content packages to move customized data between environments

BMC Helix Business Workflows can be used to implement case management for different lines of business. As a case business analyst, you can customize the required templates, processes, and documents for a line of business based on your organization's requirements. You must create the content in your tailoring environment and test it in your QA environment before you deploy it into production. 

BMC Helix Platform provides a utility to export and import your custom content between environments. The exported package maintains any associations defined when creating the template or process. For example, when you select a case template for export, all associated task templates, processes related to the task template, and dynamic data included in the case template are exported. 

Content packages provided out of the box

BMC provides several content packages out of the box. You can download the content package files and directly import them to BMC Helix Platform. For more information about importing these content packages, see  Deploying application tailoring changes . 

To export and import a content package for BMC Helix Business Workflows

On a dedicated or shared tailoring system, you can create a deployable export or content package that gets downloaded as a ZIP file. The ZIP file is named in the <developer ID>.<application name>-<application version>-content.zip> format. For example, com.example.ticketingservice-1.0.0-content.zip. If an application's export or content package was created earlier, BMC Helix Platform overwrites the earlier export or package with the latest package.

To move data from your tailoring environment to your production or QA environment, create the content packages for following data:

1. Content package for a line of business
2. Content package for out-of-the-box data
   
3. Content package for custom data

After you create a content package, you can import it to the target system, where you want to move this data.

(Version 20.08.01) To create a content package for a line of business

If you setting up a line of business for the first time, you must create a content package for a line of business. To create a content package for a line of business, perform the following steps:

1. Log in BMC Helix Platform as an administrator.

2. Navigate to the Workspace tab. 
3. Select Business Workflows.
4. Click Actions and select Create Content Package.

5. In the Create Export Package window, on the Select Definitions tab, do not select any definition, and click Next.

6. On the Add Data tab, select Line of Business, and click Click to build a global data filter expression.
7. On the Edit Expression page, enter an expression to specify the Line of Business ID, such as ID = AGGADGG8ECDC0.

8. On the Package tab, click Create Package.
   After you create the content package, you can import it to the target system, where you want to move this data. To import the content package, see  Deploying application tailoring changes .

To create a content package for out-of-the-box data

After you move the content package for a line of business to your production or QA environment, you must move the content package for out-of-the-box data such as notification templates and acknowledgement templates for the line of business. To create a content package for the out-of-the-box data, perform the following steps:

1. Log in BMC Helix Platform as an administrator.

2. Navigate to the Workspace tab. 
3. Select Business Workflows.
4. Click Actions and select Create Content Package.

5. In the Create Export Package window, on the Select Definitions tab, do not select any definition, and click Next.

6. On the Add Data tab, select Email Acknowledgement Templates and Notification Templates.
7. In the Duplicates column, for Email Acknowledgement Templates and Notification Templates, select the Merge option.
   
8. Click Click to build a global data filter expression, on the Edit Expression page, enter the following expression:
   

   $450000420$ = <Domain ID of the Line of business>
   For example, $450000420$ = AGGADGG8ECDC0AQ7BR1ZQ

9. On the Package tab, click Create Package.
   After you create the content package, you can import it to the target system, where you want to move this data. To import the content package, see  Deploying application tailoring changes .

To create a content package for custom data

After you move the content package for out-of-the-box data to your production or QA environment, you must move the content package for custom data such as templates, Flowsets, documents, processes, and rules for the line of business. To create a content package for custom data, perform the following steps:

1. Log in BMC Helix Platform as an administrator. 

   Note

   If the export package contains any dynamic data that includes an attachment, the administrator must be assigned the Case Business Analyst functional role to so that the dynamic data definition can be successfully imported.

2. Navigate to the Workspace tab. 
3. Select Business Workflows.
4. Click Actions and select Create Content Package.

5. In the Create Export Package window on the tabs displayed, perform the actions described in the following table:

   Tab Name	Action	Notes
   Select Definitions	Select the customized definitions you created for BMC Helix Platform, for example, documents (dynamic fields), processes, and so on.	This tab lists all the customized definitions you have created for BMC Helix Platform.
   Add Data	Select the data you want to export and click Next.	Do not remove any predefined qualifications. To add additional qualifications, add brackets to the current qualification, and use the AND operator to specify the qualifications. You can create content packages only for specific BMC Helix Platform data, if required. When exporting knowledge articles, you must select the knowledge article and the knowledge sets for which the articles have been created. When exporting service targets that use notification templates for milestones, you must also export those notification templates.
   	To filter the data to be exported, click Click to build a global data filter expression to enter selection criteria. For example, if you only want to export case templates defined for the Facilities line of business, enter the following expression:  $450000420$ = <Domain ID of the Facilities line of business>
   	Ignore Rules—Do not select this option.	When importing data, the utility checks for duplicate records. Selecting this option bypasses all validations during data import.
   	Duplicates—Select one of these actions for duplicate data Ignore—Does not import the record if it exists in the system. Create New—Creates a new record with a different GUID even if the record exists in the system. Overwrite—Overwrites the existing record only if the fields Created Date and Owner are updated in the new record.  Merge—Update the delta part on the existing record Field exists and is populated - overwrite will replace the value and merge will append the data to the existing data.	To avoid errors, the recommended option is Merge.
   	Include configuration data in the package — Do not select this option.
   Order Data	Do not change the order displayed.	For BMC Helix Business Workflows, the order is predefined to the order in which the records need to be imported without errors.
   Approval Configuration	Select the group for which you want to export the approval configurations.	You have to export all approval flows created for a group and cannot select individual approval configurations.
   Assignment Configuration Select Definitions To Delete Options	Skip these steps when exporting data for BMC Helix Business Workflows.	These fields are not applicable for BMC Helix Business Workflowsexport. For details about these fields, see Deploying application tailoring changes .
   Package	Review the data items included and excluded and click Create Package.
   Download	To download the content package, click Download.

   After you create the content package, you can import it to the target system, where you want to move this data. 

6. To import the content package, see  Deploying application tailoring changes .

Related topic

Content package for BMC Helix Business Workflows