Launch Pad v5 - How to export to xls > update > import

[JohnWhite]

Hi,

Firstly, thank you for the awesome product, and free! I'm trying to prove it's value to justify a cloud subscription to get the extra views and the webforms for data entry, however, I first need to get the core data into the OS version.

I started populating via Protege, then got the latest version of the launch pad. I'm now trying to export what's currently in the repo to xls, modify the xls tabs with the help of the business/tech, and then i want to merge that back in.

This is how far I've got:

Exporting

• I've install the launch pad v5 dup
  Published the protege repo to essential viewer
  (all good)
  I then click "view library" >> "support" >> "Launchpad Plus Loaders"
  Click the "Launchpad as Excel" button
  And it then downloads an XML file (note this named "l4_launchpad_export" - not v5...)

Editing:

• If i double click it and select launch with excel, all is good. I can see the apps etc. i started to enter into protege - IDs are this format "KB_058980_Class4" I assume not an issue if i leave as is, and it doesn;t matter if new rows use the launchpad format?
  When I save, it states am i sure, i'll loose some features saving as XML 2003 spreadsheet
  Q1 - What format should I save as? as is (XML) or xls or something else?

Importing:
I used this guide - https://enterprise-architecture.org/ess ... ity.php#os

• Step 1a - I created a prod target pointing to my protege 'server' (I'm using a multi user set up) test connection works for both repo and viewer
  Step 1b - I created a 'Development' env pointing to another viewer instance in tomcat (for dev and test)
  Step 2 - Created a Data source with this name "Launchpad v5 XML"
  Q2 Does this have to be the same as the filename i downloaded above in exporting?
  Step 3 - This is where the guide starts to diverge from the tool, when I click 'new' in manage imports, i don't get a window pop up called 'Create Import Activity' i get a sub menu with two options 1) Empty Import Activity 2) From Import Template
  Q3 what should I select?
  I select #2 - it does nothing...
  I select #1 and i get the "Create Import Activity"
  Name = "Import pre-populated launchpad file"
  Excel
  No desc
  source = the one created above
  I upload the spreadsheet I modified above (the XML file)
  - I get an error - needs to be excel file
  I try Automated XML import type in the drop down
  try the upload again
  - I get the same error
  I save the xml as xls in excel
  repeat the above with excel type and this xls file (no error on upload this time)
  click log imports
  click OK
  all good
  Step 4 - select row, click Open
  - I don't have a preview spreadsheet button, no biggy
  Step 5 - I upload the v5 import spec
  - Note 'physical proc to app' sheet is not ticked by default, so i click it (to include everything)
  I select "Development" and click test import
  In the test import popup, i select "Run Import"
  I get two warnings about "Deployment Status" and "Physical Proc to App" not being in the xls (I assume due to v4 export?)
  
  ALL buttons are greyed out so I can't do anything other than close this window, where as I was hoping to download the import script, or publish to test viewer to make sure all was well before importing into production. (I also tried a refresh first, no different)
  
  If I create a production dup, and then inspect the dup (zip) contents, and open the python script I can see the new entries in the code, so it appears to import ok.
  
  I made a SQL server backup, and then I imported into the production instance (the protege server), it appears fine, but not ideal skipping the local test env I hoped it would push to (viewer, or a new repo to download if required)
  Q4 - Am I doing something wrong?

With regards to my 3 questions, I'm thinking for 1, 2 & 3 probably just the guide needs updating to save others the confusion, in the import section/Q4 it feels like either I'm missing something (maybe a guide update also), or there is a bug of sorts.

I had some strange behaviour after running the direct to server import where SQL server would consume a whole core for a long amount of time preventing the protege client from working. I had to reboot the sql and protege server. When it came back up it did something similar after connecting the client. After it disconnecting and reconnecting again, it settled down and I can comfirm the import worked with the new data.

Thoughts on the questions and the SQL behaviour?

Thanks
John

[JohnM]

Hi John

Q1 - open the XML file and save it as an Excel file, the import utility component you are using will look for an Excel file
Q2 - No, it can be whatever you like
Q3 - Select Create Import Activity, upload the Excel file you saved in step 1 (not the XML version), ignore the XML boxes, they are for different XML loading.

I'll stop here for now as I suspect that is why you have greyed out boxes. Re the Impot spec, V5 will look for the worksheets in v5, hence the warnings

Q4 - Re MySQL - I'll need to ask one of the team to have a look

[jonathan.carter]

Hi John,

On Q4, your repository strategy is entirely up to you. Some people have multiple repositories that are for development, test and production. Other people have only ‘production’ or ‘live’ repositories or multiple repositories targeting different domains.

Therefore, there is no automatic publishing to Viewer when you load a new repository snapshot, e.g. into production from test. You only publish to Viewer when you are confident that the content is ready to be published.

In terms of making backups and moving them between repositories, many find that it is simpler to use the Essential Snapshot tab and create a snapshot of the current repository to your local filesystem. You can then migrate this content to a new ‘environment’ by simply loading this snapshot and then converting it to use the Protege Database backend (to get it into your SQL Server).

For the direct-to-server import, there is a very high volume of database updates being performed by the Import Utility, as a client of the Protege server. The complexity of the import for each class varies but the Launchpad has many worksheets, some of which are automating some complex modelling. The bottom line is that there are often a very large number of small updates being made on the database and this will result in the database server working hard for the duration of that import. What you are seeing is as we would expect.

If this performance becomes a problem for you, you may find it better to use the option to generate a DUP file within the Import Utility and then use the Essential Update Tab to import the contents of the resulting DUP file.

When the Protege client first connects to the Protege server, it requests a large amount of the repository, in order to populate the user interface and ensure that it has the classes of the meta model and their instances. Once it has completed this initialisation, the performance should be very good when browsing and making updates to the repository.

Quite possibly, the transaction manager in the database was working through some outstanding update transactions from before it was terminated.

Inevitably, there’s some variance in the performance of different JDBC-compliant databases, as they vary in their approaches to implementing the underlying database.

Jonathan

[JohnWhite]

Thanks for the replies.

So the v5 launchpad pack has a bug and doesn't update the support view to export a v5 compliant XML (Excel)?

[JohnM]

Have you applied the 6.9 release? The v5 supporting view is in there?

[JohnWhite]

hi John,

Yeah so 6.9 has been applied - it shows in the EA_Class >> About_Essential >> Meta_Model_Version as 6.9, I've published, but the xml that gets downloaded from the support view is named l4_launchpad_export - there is a tab in the xls named "Physical Proc 2 App and Service", but i don't see anything related to 'deployment status'.

Is this the name of the file you expect it to generate in v5 launchpad?

[JohnM]

Sorry John, one more question have you downloaded the latest views too from github when you updated the meta model? https://github.com/essentialproject/ess ... ntegration

Thanks

PS The filename is still L4_Launchpad_export but it is updated to support L5 - sorry for the confusion.