How exporting and importing work with overlays and custom objects

Export and import operations behave differently with overlays and custom objects.

Behavior of export operations on overlays and custom objects

The following table shows the object customization types that can be exported in each development mode.

Mode

Objects that can be exported

Best Practice Customization

  • Origin (unmodified only)
  • Overlay (with resolved name1) — When an overlay object is exported, its overlaid object is also automatically exported
  • Custom

Base Development

Origin (unmodified and overlaid)

1 For information about the real and resolved names of overlays, see Overlay-object-names.

You can include any combination of the permitted object customization types in a single export operation. For more information, see Exporting-objects.


Related topic

Customizing-applications-using-overlays-and-custom-objects

Behavior of import operations on overlays and custom objects

You can import any combination of overlay, overlaid, unmodified, and custom objects in the same operation as long as they are in the same .def file. When you are importing an application, if the .def file contains both base and overlay objects, the Import Base and Overlay Application option is available in the Application Selection window.

The following situations require special handling:

  • Importing overlay objects with prohibited modifications—Imported overlay objects must not contain any prohibited modifications (that is, modifications that you cannot make in Best Practice Customization mode). If they do, the import fails.
  • Importing an overlaid object whose overlay is on the target server—If properties that are not controlled by overlays are changed in an overlaid object before it is imported (for example, the overlay object name is changed), the change is reflected in the corresponding overlay object on the target server after the import is complete (in the previous example, the overlay object name is updated to match the new name of the imported overlaid object).
  • Importing only overlay objects—If you import an overlay object but do not import its corresponding overlaid object, the target server must contain a copy of the overlaid object. If it does not, the import fails. For more information, see Importing-object-definitions.

 

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