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External Information Domains

Owned by Tom Wyczółkowski
Last updated: Mar 19, 2024 by Maciej Zabielski
3 min read

Introduction

HDC has the requirement to import and export data from various data sources such as design systems, management systems, electronic and paper documents. This data comes in different formats and often utilizes different means of identification. Incompatibilities can arise with identifiers stored under different property fields.

In HDC, each of these identifiable systems or data sources is referred to as EID. EID represents a set of rules that defines how objects should be identified and matched, as well as how their metadata should be translated to a common structure within HDC. This translation process operates bidirectionally during both import and export.

As manual procedures for data import have transitioned to high-volume automated processes, it has become evident that managing multiple ID systems is necessary due to not only mistakes but also differing object ID rules across various data sources when communicating with the external world through HDC.

Data inside an external domain is not case-sensitive. This means that the casing for object classes, class fields, and layer names will not be checked. For example, the source class Arkitekt can be added to HDC External Domain as ARKITEKT, and they will be matched as one.

 External Information Domains panel

 

External Information Domains are used to define Object classes, Object Mapping, Layer Mapping and Object Identity rules used by specific external system.

Columns:

  • Domain ID: This is the unique identifier for each domain.

  • Name: The name of the domain.

  • Is Live: Indicates whether the domain points to another online service configured in the Live Data Source tab.

  • Public: Specifies if other HDC functions can use this domain, for example, copy object IDs.

After creating an external domain, you can click its name to view detailed rules for this domain starting from the Object Classes tab.

Exporting and Importing External Domain Configuration

You can now export selected External Domain Configuration along with all its mappings to a file in JSON or XML format.

In the TDXM panel, navigate to the External Information Domains panel to view a list of all external domains. Select a domain, then click on the Export button and choose the file format for the export. This action will download a file containing the configuration of the selected domain to your disk.



To import domain configuration, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new domain and select it.

  2. Click on the Import button to choose the file with the exported configuration.

Here's what you need to know about the import process:

  • All object classes and their fields from the exported domain will be added to the new domain on the Object Classes tab.

  • Entries on the Object Mappings tab will only be added when target class/fields are present in the destination DB (in case of importing into a different DB/application).

  • The same applies to Global Layers mapping - the target global layer must exist.

  • All Private Layers mapping will be added with a set of permissions if users with matching usernames exist in both databases (exported and destination).

  • Live Data Source configuration is not exported.