Copying or moving library items

You can copy or move existing library items to a new or existing process application or toolkit in the Designer view.

About this task

In the library in the Designer view, you can copy or move existing library items to a new or existing process application or toolkit.

Note: To move or copy items, you must have write access to the target process application or toolkit.

The following table describes how copy and move operations are different:

Action	Description
Copy a library item	Creates a new library item that is a duplicate of the original item. The newly created item is not associated with the original item from which it was copied.
Move a library item	Relocates the original item to a new or different process application or toolkit.

When you choose one or more items to move, IBM® Process Designer displays all dependencies for the selected items. For example, if you choose a client-side human service that you want to move and that client-side human service depends upon several coach views, and business objects for its implementations, Process Designer displays all the items that the client-side human service depends upon so that you can easily see all items to be included in the move operation. You also have the option of choosing the specific items to include in the operation. Moving related items together ensures that you have a functional implementation in the destination process application or toolkit.

Note: The list of dependencies includes library items that share the same XSD or WSDL file as the moving item. For example, if there are two otherwise unrelated business objects, BO1 and BO2, defined in the same XSD file. If you choose to move BO1, Process Designer includes BO2 in the list of dependencies even though BO1 and BO2 do not have a dependency relationship with each other.

When you copy library items, any references to those items in the source process application or toolkit are unaffected because the original items remain and are still referenced. Also be aware that all the toolkits the source process application or toolkit are dependent on are copied to the destination process application or toolkit even if they are not needed by the copied library items. After copying the needed library items, you should remove any unneeded toolkits.

When you move library items, those changes can affect existing implementations and other references in the source process application or toolkit. For example, if the implementation for an activity is a nested process and you move the nested process without moving the BPD that contains the activity, whether the activity's implementation (reference to the nested process) is good or is broken depends upon where you move the nested process as described in the following table:

If you move the nested process to...	The reference...
A new toolkit	Is good because Process Designer automatically creates a new dependency on the new toolkit.
An existing toolkit that the source process application is not currently using	Is good because Process Designer automatically creates a new dependency on the existing toolkit.
An existing toolkit that the source process application is using	If there are no changes to the destination toolkit since the most recent snapshot was created, the reference is good because Process Designer automatically creates a new snapshot of the toolkit and updates the existing toolkit dependency to the new snapshot. If there are changes to the destination toolkit since the most recent snapshot was created, the reference is broken until you update the existing toolkit dependency to the new snapshot of the toolkit that Process Designer automatically creates.
A new or existing process application	Is broken because process applications cannot depend upon each other. When you move library items to process applications, be sure to move all related items to avoid broken references. IBM BPM automatically resolves broken references when related items are not moved simultaneously.

Note: By default, Process Designer moves all related items. If you analyze dependent items and choose to move only some of them, ensure that you understand all relationships before completing such an operation. When copying items, Process Designer copies only the items that you select and does not display dependent items. To ensure that you have moved or copied all items required for a particular implementation, you should check both the source and destination process application or toolkit for validation errors.

Procedure

To move or copy library items, complete the following steps.

Select the library item that you want to move or copy. To choose multiple items in a category, press and hold the Ctrl key and then click each item.
Right-click and select either Copy item to or Move item to.
Select the option that you want from the menu.
If you are moving items, review the dependencies of the selected items. Reviewing dependencies is especially important when you refactor imported or migrated library items.
1. To understand the dependencies for a particular item, click the item to select it.
2. Clear the check box for an item to exclude it from the pending operation. If you exclude an item that another item requires, Process Designer displays an icon (exclamation point) so that you are aware of the validation error for the included item. The list of dependent items to be moved includes items that are dependent because of the underlying implementation file. You cannot clear these items.
3. If the dependent items to be moved are called or referenced by items in addition to the ones that you selected to move, Process Designer displays those items in a section that is called Other items that depend on items being moved. To move these other items, click the arrow next to each item that you want to include. Clicking the arrow moves each item to the Items to be moved portion of the window to show that those items are included in the move operation.
  Note: Leaving these other items out of a move operation can cause errors in the source process application or toolkit because services, teams, or other items that are required for their implementation are being moved. When moved to a toolkit, the references can be updated and the errors resolved. However, when moved to a process application, the references are no longer valid because you cannot have dependencies on process applications.
4. When you are satisfied with the list of items to be included in the pending operation, click the Move button at the bottom of the window.

Results

Process Designer moves or copies the selected library items to the designated process application or toolkit. If you copy or move library items with the same name as items in the destination process application or toolkit, the Designer appends a number to the end of the moved or copied items. The original items in the destination have no numbers and the copied or moved item names are followed by the number two. If the destination for the duplicate items is a toolkit, Process Designer creates a new snapshot of that toolkit so that you can choose whether to update the existing dependency to the toolkit.

If you do not like the results of a move and you are working in the Process Designer desktop editor, you can undo it immediately. If you complete any other action other than undo, the move is permanent. The undo completely reverses the move except that any process applications or toolkits created due to the move remain but do not have any content. You can archive these process applications or toolkits.