Importing Objects


Importing an object provides your repository with a snapshot of an object from another RIB repository. The data that you capture by importing an object is a static copy of the information maintained by the remote repository, so changes made by the other repository after you have imported the object will not be reflected in your catalog. On the other hand, interoperating with the other repository ensures that the information appearing in your catalog always stays current with the metadata in the remote repository. See help on Interoperations for more information.

To import an object, choose the "Manage Objects" tab and then choose the object's class. Next click the "Import" button. When the dialog box appears, type in the url where the object can be found on the Internet. After the object has been retrieved, it will appear in the Object Editor (see the help documentation on Manage Objects / Object Editor). At this point you can make any desired changes to the object and then save it in your repository. If the imported object is missing any attributes or relationships required by your repository's data model, then you will need to supply values for those fields before RIB will allow you to save the object. If your repository and the repository which contains the object have very different data models, then importing the object may not be possible. This often results in an error message that says that the object contained no useful information.

Note: Importing an object is not a recursive operation. That is, importing an object will not automatically import any objects pointed to by its Relationships. Those objects must be imported separately, if desired.