Introduction
Exporting and importing Inspections using XML files is a feature delivered in Support Pack 12. Unlike the export using csv files, which exports all objects in independent csv files, the xml export is specific to one or more Inspections and exports/ imports all associated Inspections objects. This includes:
- The Inspection, it's long text and translations, it's object assignments, it's Question Groups and it's associated Rules
- The Question Groups, their long text and translations, their Inspection Question assignments
- The Questions, their long text and translations, their Answer Group assignments, their Notification Templates assignments
- The Answer Groups and their Notification Template assignments
- The Notification Templates
- The Rules
Business and SAP Context
For complex business scenarios customers can elect to manage their Inspection configuration in a more controlled manner. Using other SAP systems (i.e. SAP TST or QAS instance/s) they can create, test and authorise their Inspections prior to transfer to productive use. The XML export and import functionality helps facilitate that process in a more controlled manner.
Important Information
- As part of control your Inspection configuration data we strongly advise the use of Inspection Authorisation Groups. This means that you can control different areas of business ownership of it's content.
- If you attempt to export multiple Inspections with multiple Questions containing complex long text (including images) then you could encounter problems with the XML file size (i.e. at the file level not BlueWorx level). We recommend single export files where complex Inspections are in use.
- On import into a system it's the GUID of the authorisation group that is checked and not its name. That means that the source and target systems must have the same Inspection Auth Groups. i.e. you set these up in BlueWorx admin in your SAP test system, export to csv file and import to import into you SAP production system (or visa-versa to get things going if you've traditionally maintained in production but want to move to use the test system as the control source. Good practice suggests that if you're enabling a change management process of this nature, then you'd provide authorisation access to maintain inspection configuration in your SAP Test system to those personnel responsible for their maintenance, but restrict the assignment of the associated SAP Profiles (with SAP Auth Object to Inspection Group assignment)in your production system. See Settings Tab - Inspections for further information on Inspection Authorisation Groups.
Settings
The following is an illustration of this page/ tab:
The following screen fields and controls are defined, where not documented they are considered self explanatory or are explained elsewhere:
| Field | Description/ Usage | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Select | Select one or more Inspections to export | The XML content can become very large and the files unmanageable where very detailed instructions and images are included. For this reason we recommend, where practical, the export and import of individual Inspections. |
| Export button (Download Inspections) | Exports the selected Inspections/s to an xml file.
| |
| Import button (Upload Inspections) | Import a selected file with one or more Inspections. See below for detailed information on importing |
Import Details
On selection of a file to import a screen is displayed that shows the various objects to import. Examples of these are provided below. For all sections:
- Users can not import objects for which they are not authorised by way of the Inspection Authorisation Groups
- Users have to specifically select the Action box to import records whose change date in the importing system is equal to or newer than the xml last change date
Non Expanded View
Inspections Section - Example
Rule - Example
Question Group Section - Example
Question - Example
Answer Group - Example
Notification Template - Example
