Moving applications into another environment

At some point in your application development cycle, you may need to move the application to another location for one of these reasons:

  • You want to test your application in a dedicated testing environment.

  • You want to temporarily move your application to another development environment, such as a laptop.

  • Another developer is taking over your application development.

  • You want to deploy your application in a live production environment.

  • You need to create a backup of your application.

To move your application from one environment to another, use a AEM forms archive file. A AEM forms archive file is a compressed file that contains one or more applications and assets.

Moving applications and assets to another environment involves these tasks, which are performed in the following order:

Task 1. Create archive file:
In Workbench, create or update an archive file to include applications and assets you want to move. (See Creating archive files .)

Task 2. Import archive file:
In administration console, use the archive file to import applications and assets into another location. (See “Managing AEM forms Archives” in AEM forms administration help .)

These tasks may be repeated if an archive file is moved from system to system or if an application is updated repeatedly and the updates need to be reflected in the other environment.

About archive files

An archive file is a compressed file that contains selected applications and assets you want to move.

An archive can also contain assets that are not related to any processes.

You can include as many applications and assets as you need in the archive file.

In addition, the archive file contains the data ( as CQ packages ) to be exported to the AEM forms CRX repository.

The filename extension of an archive is .lca.

Note: External resources are automatically included in an archive file only if they are referenced by the Form variables. Resources referenced by the operation properties are not automatically included but can be added to the archive manually.

Creating archive files

When creating an archive, you have these options:

  • You can start with an empty file and select all the applications and assets to include in the archive.

  • You can start with a previously created archive file and modify its content by adding or removing applications and assets. This method is a time-saving method to use when the new archive differs from the existing one only by a few items.

  • You can create a patch for the already imported archive. This method is useful when you created an archive, imported its content to another location, but now you have some assets that are updated and need to be reimported. You can create an archive that contains only the assets that need to be updated.

Before you create an archive file, check in the applications and assets to include in the archive. If your application contains assets that are checked out, Workbench prompts you to check them in before you start archive creation.

The following user permissions are required for creating an archive file.

  • To include processes in the archive, the user must have Service Read and Service Invoke permissions.

  • To include resources in the archive, the user must have Repository Read and Repository Traverse permissions for the resource being exported, and Repository Traverse permission for the parent folders.

If you are archiving an application that uses a custom component, add the Component Reference asset to the application. This asset provides a way to explicitly declare a relationship for a component.

Add a Component Reference asset to the application

A component reference provides a way for you to explicity declare a relationship to custom component that is used by your application. For more information about custom components, see “ Developing Components ” in Programming with AEM forms Help .

  1. Select File > New > Other.

  2. In the Select a Wizard panel, select Component Reference and click Next.

  3. In the Name box, specify the name for the component reference asset.

  4. (Optional) In the Description box, type a brief description of the asset.

  5. In the Location area, specify the path to the asset location within the application hierarchy. The path must include the name and version of the application and, optionally, subfolder names. An example of a valid path is /MyApp/1.0/processes. You can either type the path or select the required location from the application tree.

  6. (Optional) Click New Folder to create a subfolder in the application tree.

  7. Click Next, click Browse, select the component, and then select Finish to create the Component References asset.

Create an archive file

  1. In the Applications view, right-click the application version and select Create AEM forms Archive.

  2. Select Create A New Archive File and click Next.

  3. Select applications and/or assets to be included in the archive file. The following rules apply when selecting applications and assets:

    • To make a selection, select the check box beside a component. To deselect a component, select the check box again.

    • A shaded box indicates that child components are selected implicitly.

    • Selecting an application version automatically selects all assets within the application.

    • Selecting a folder automatically selects all files and folders contained within it.

  4. In the Local File System Destination box, specify the file name and location of the archive:

    Note: You do not need to specify the file name extension .lca. It will be automatically added to the file name.

  5. (Optional) In the Archive Description box, type a description for the archive so that others will know what its contents are. A default description specifies the date and time of the archive creation and the name of the user who created the archive.

  6. Click Finish to save the file.

The archive file is saved in the specified location. You can use administration console to import it into another server. (See “Managing AEM forms Archives” in AEM forms administration help .)

Create an archive file based on existing file

  1. In the Applications view, right-click the application version and select Create AEM forms Archive.

  2. Select Create A New Archive File From A List Of Assets In Existing Archive File.

  3. In the Archive File box, type a full path to the archive file you want to start with or click the ellipsis button and select the file.

  4. Click Next and select applications and/or assets to add to the archive file or deselect applications and/or assets to remove.

  5. In the Local File System Destination box, specify the name of the archive file to create.

  6. (Optional) In the Archive Description box, type a description for the archive so that others will know what its contents are. The default description includes information about the archive creation date and the name of the user who created the file.

  7. Click Finish to save the archive file.

Create a patch for an existing archive

  1. In the Applications view, right-click the application version and select Create AEM forms Archive.

  2. Select Create A Patch for An Existing Archive and click Next.

  3. Select the assets that need to be updated.

  4. In the Local File System Destination box, specify the name of the archive file to create.

  5. (Optional) In the Archive Description box, type a description for the archive. The default description includes information about the archive creation date and the name of the user who created the file.

  6. Click Finish to save the archive file.

About runtime configuration XML files

Each application and application version has runtime configuration settings associated with it. A runtime configuration settings file is an XML file that contains information about applications, such as:

  • Service configuration

  • Pool configuration

  • Endpoints details

  • Security profile

To view or modify the runtime configuration settings of an application, export the settings to a runtime configuration XML file. You can use an XML or text editor to open or modify the contents of the runtime configuration XML file. When you want to modify runtime configuration settings of an application, import the modified XML file using administration console.

For example, when you move an application to a new environment using a AEM forms archive file, you may need to modify the runtime configuration settings to suit the target environment. AEM forms archive files are in a compressed format, and can be read only by the AEM forms server. Therefore, you need a runtime configuration settings XML file to view and edit application settings.

Export runtime configuration settings

You can export configuration settings as an XML for an application or application version.

  1. In the Applications view, right-click an application or an application version and select Create AEM forms Archive.

  2. Select Export Runtime Configurations.

  3. In the Export Runtime Configurations File box, type the full path and name of the configuration file you want to create.

  4. Click Finish to save the runtime configuration file.

For information on importing runtime configuration files, see "Import and manage AEM forms applications and archives" in AEM forms administration help .

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