Explains the different options for working with copy and paste in Service Builder to
copy data model artifacts.
Context
To simplify and enhance usability within the Service Builder, you can copy and paste data
model artifacts within a project or between different open projects in the Service
Builder. You can copy artifacts from any projects in display or edit mode, but the
project in which you want to paste the copied projects must be in edit mode. You can
copy and paste the following data model artifacts:
- Entity types
- Properties
- Navigation Properties
- Associations
- Entity sets
- Association sets
- Function imports
- Complex types
Working with Copy and Paste Icons in the Mass Maintenance View
To use the copy and paste functions in the mass maintenance view,
proceed as follows:
- Open the project from or within which you want to copy data model
artifacts.
- Double-click the folder in the project that contains the artifacts you want
to copy.
- Select the nodes that contain the artifacts you want to copy and paste to a
different location and choose Copy to Clipboard to
create a copy of the nodes or Cut to Clipboard to
create a copy of the nodes and at the same time remove the nodes from the
current location.
- Double-click the folder in the same project, or in a different project, to
which you want to paste the nodes you have copied.
- In the mass maintenance view for the new folder, choose Paste from
Clipboard.
- The nodes you copied from the previous location are pasted to the new
location.
Working with Copy and Paste Shortcut Keys in the Tree ViewIn the tree view of
your projects, you can use the standard copy
Ctrl C and paste
Ctrl V shortcut keys to copy and paste artifacts within a or
between open projects. To copy a data model from one project to another and
ensure that node references such as those between entity sets and entity types
are copied and retained too, proceed as follows:
- Open the project from which you want to copy the data model.
- Select the Data Model folder and all its subfolders
and press Ctrl C. The artifacts that have been copied to the
clipboard are expanded in the tree view and highlighted in yellow. An
information message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to confirm
the number of nodes copied to the clipboard.
- Open the project to which you want to copy the data model and ensure
that this project is in edit mode.
- Select the Data Model folder and press Ctrl
V. This copies all the data model artifacts from one project
to another. The artifacts that have been pasted from the clipboard into
the project are expanded in the tree view and highlighted in yellow. An
information message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to confirm
the number of nodes pasted from the clipboard.
Working with Copy and Paste Context Menu in
the Tree ViewYou can use the copy and paste functions from the context
menu in the tree view to create copies in other open projects in edit mode. In
this way, you can easily reuse existing entity types together with their
properties and navigation properties, for example. To use the copy and paste
functions from the context menu, proceed as described in the following
example:
- To copy all entity types in a project, for example, right-click
Entity Types subfolder and select
Copy. All entity types contained in this folder
are highlighted and selected for copying. An information message is
displayed at the bottom of the screen to confirm the number of nodes
that have been copied to the clipboard.
- To create copies of these entity types in a different project, open the
relevant project in edit mode. Right-click Entity
Types folder and select Paste. All
entity types copied to this folder are highlighted. An information
message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to confirm the number
of nodes that have been pasted from the clipboard.
Note For technical reasons, it is not possible to create a copy of an
existing Service Builder project using the copy and paste functions. However, a
function is available that enables you to create a new Service Builder project
on the basis of an existing Service Builder project together with it’s data
model and service implementation.