Moving views between environments

On some browsers the default protocol used is Web Sockets which has a 64K limit on the data packet size. You must change the transport type to Server Sent Events to accommodate the larger data packets that are sent when importing and exporting views. On the My Views page, click the gear icon in the upper right corner and set Transport Type to Server Sent Events. This should only apply to Microsoft Edge browsers.

As you work on developing your views, you are likely to create them in a development environment, then verify that they generate the results you want in a test environment, before finally moving them into your production system. Use PI Integrator for Business Analytics to move the views between these environments, exporting them from one system and importing them into the other system. You can export views individually or you can export them in bulk to a views configuration file.

The following procedure assumes that you are exporting views from the first system and importing them into the second.

1. Click the menu icon and click Administration.

2. On the Administration page, click the Views tab.

   The Views page displays a list of all the views in your PI Integrator for Business Analytics instance.

3. Select the views you want to export and click Export Selected Views.

   Files are exported to the Downloads directory. Single views are exported to a file with the name of the view, for example, My Asset View.json. Multiple views are exported to a file named exportViews.json file.

4. Move the exported file to a location that can be accessed from your second system, that is, the system you want to import the views into.

5. On the second system, from PI Integrator for Business Analytics, click the menu icon and click Administration.

6. On the Administration page, click the Views tab.

7. Click Import Views.

8. In the Open window, select the file you exported and click Open.

   The Import Views page displays the view. If you import an exported views file, the views contained in the file are extracted.

   The imported views will go through the view name validation due to special characters. If a view name is deemed to be invalid, the View Name textbox will be highlighted in red and you will be unable to import that view. To import that view, you can perform one of two actions:

   • Change the ViewnameAllowedSpecialCharacters field in the C:\ProgramFiles\PIPC\Integrators\BA\CAST.UI.WindowsService.exe.config to include specific special characters and then restart integrator services. Re-import the views to now pass validation.

   • Modify the view name directly in the View Name textbox. If the new view has passed validation, then the View Name textbox will be highlighted in green, allowing the view name to pass validation and import. For more information, see View Name validation.

   

   PI Integrator for Business Analytics will attempt to locate the PI AF server and database used to create the view in the first system. If it cannot find the server or the database, these fields will be blank.

   Note: You cannot import a view using the PI View publish target as it is deprecated. Select another publish target to import the view successfully.

9. Select the PI AF server, PI AF database, and the publish target.

   The Matches column tells you the number of matches it finds for the shape with the specified PI AF server and database.

10. (Optional) Click in the View Name, Start Time, and End Time field to change the values.

11. (Optional) Click Autostart to automatically start publishing the view once it is imported.

    Note: You cannot autostart a view that has never been published.

    Exercise caution when importing multiple views. Once imported, they will start running immediately and may overload the computer resources. We recommend that you manually set the publishing schedule if you are importing more than a few views.

12. Select the views you want to import and click Import Selected Views.

    The views are appended to the end of the list of views. Once imported, if Autostart is enabled they will start running immediately and may overload the computer resources. We recommend that you manually schedule the views.

13. Return Transport Type to its previous setting. In most instances, this is Auto.