This page describes how Information Source metadata can be archived.
This option is available for both Information Sources and Dimensions and the description on this page applies to both cases.
The Information Source feature provides a possibility to archive the current state of the metadata anda applies to Information Sources as well as to Dimensions.
A reason for archiving metadata is that the Information Sources feature might have been used several times to do modifications of the installed metadata. Since it can be rather difficult to keep track of made changes, the archiving functionality provides a possibility to save the metadata at given point, serving as a backup of made modifications. As a rule of thumb the metadata definitions for an entity, Information Source or Dimension, should be archived as soon as modifications have been done and tested. The archive metadata can be exported to file but it can also be restored, i.e. replacing the current metadata definitions.
As an example, the option Archive copies of Selected is selected for the Information Source FACT_ABSENCE_PERIOD.
The Information Source is first selected and then the Archive copies of Selected option is used.
A message box will always appear where the user must confirm if the archiving should be handled or not.
If Yes is selected, an archive entry for each selected entity, Information Source or Dimension, will be created. When ready a dialog box will appear to verify that the archiving operation completed successfully.
Every time the metadata of an Information Source or Dimension is archived using the Information Sources feature, an entry will be created in the Information Sources Archive.
The following actions/events leads to creation of an archive entry:
The Information Sources Archive window provide the following operations:
Note: When a restore is performed, the current metadata will be archived before restore takes place.
Assuming the following scenario:
It is obvious that the archived metadata entry related to the archived manual changes should be exported to file. This is done via RMB option in the Information Sources Archive.
But with what should it be compared?
One possibility is of course to compare it with the metadata file used during the latest installation. The problem here is though that the metadata file as generated via the model file in Developer Studio does not have exactly the same structure as a metadata file exported via the Information Sources feature or the Information Sources Archive window. This makes the analysis of differences a bit difficult.
The suggested option is as follows;