Retrieve selected templates

Before you can retrieve templates, you need to Specify a database.

You can use PI Builder to retrieve selected templates from a PI AF database into Microsoft Excel.

1. On the PI Builder tab, click Library > Templates > Find Templates to open the Template Selection window.

   Alternatively, click Library > Templates and then click the template type to retrieve all the templates of that type. For example, click Library > Templates > Element Templates to retrieve all the element templates available in PI AF, and then proceed to step 5 to specify the columns.

2. From the Type list, select the type of template you want to find.

   Select <All> to see all the templates in the database.

   In the results table, PI Builder lists the templates of the selected type.

3. If desired, filter the list of templates further:

   1. From the Actions list, select the search criteria:

      • Select one type of filter: Contains, Exact Match, Starts With, or Ends With.

      • Select one or more fields to search for matches: Name, Description, Category, and Type.

   2. In the Filter field, type the text that you want to search for and press Enter

      PI Builder returns the templates that match the filter in any of the specified fields.

4. Select one or more templates to retrieve and click OK.

5. In the Select Object Types and Column Headers window, select the objects and column headers to include in the worksheet, and then click OK.

   Note: Use the Template field to retrieve attributes from a template. The attributes defined by the selected template are displayed in the Attributes Columns (from Template 'name') group in the Object Types list.

   PI Builder retrieves the selected templates into the worksheet and fills the selected columns with available data.

   Note: PI Builder also retrieves the base template, if there is one. For example, if you have a template, Template2, with a base template called Template1, then you will retrieve both Template1 and Template2 when you specify only Template2. The BaseTemplateOnly field indicates if a template is an abstract template. Objects cannot be instantiated directly from abstract templates.