Copying Data Model Artifacts

To simplify and enhance usability within the Service Builder, you can copy and paste artifacts within a project or between different open projects the Service Builder.

You can copy artifacts from any project in display or edit mode, but the project in which you want to paste the copied artifact 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

Mass maintenance view includes the following functions to facilitate the copying and pasting of artifacts within or between open projects in Service Builder. The project to which you want to paste copied artifacts must be in edit mode:

• Copy to Clipboard

  Select the node(s) you want to copy to the clipboard so that you can paste the artifact(s) elsewhere within this project or to a different project. An information message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to indicate how many nodes have been selected and copied to the clipboard.

• Cut to Clipboard

  Select the node(s) you want to cut from this location so that you can paste the artifact(s) elsewhere within this project or to a different project. You are prompted to confirm whether you really want to delete the node from it’s current location. An information message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to indicate how many nodes have been selected and cut to the clipboard.

• Paste from Clipboard

  Select this icon to paste the artifacts from the clipboard previously copied from a different location elsewhere within this project or from a different project to the new location. An information message is displayed at the bottom of the screen to indicate how many nodes have been selected and pasted from the clipboard.

To use these copy and paste functions in the mass maintenance view, proceed as follows:

1. Open the project from or within which you want to copy artifacts.

2. Double-click the folder in the project that contains the artifact(s) you want to copy.

3. Select the node(s) that contain the artifacts you want to copy and paste to a different location and click Copy to Clipboard to create a copy of the node(s) or Cut from Clipboard to create a copy of the node(s) and at the same time remove the node(s) from the current location.

4. Double-click the folder in the same project or in a different open project to which you want to paste the node(s) you have copied.

5. 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.

In the tree view for your projects, you can use the standard copy (Ctrl C ) and paste (Ctrl V ) shortcut keys to copy and paste the artifacts.

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:

1. Open the project from which you want to copy the data model.

2. Select the Data Model folder and all its sub-folders 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.

3. Open the project to which you want to copy the data model and ensure that this project is in edit mode.

4. 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.

You 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:

1. To copy all entity types in a project, for example, right-click the 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.

2. To create copies of these entity types in a different project, open the relevant project in edit mode. Right-click the Entity Types sub-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.

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. For more information, see Copying a Service Builder Project.