Exporting and importing

Exporting

You can export an eRoom, a facility (all eRooms in it), a site (all communities in it), or a community.

Exporting communities only exports members. To export eRooms and the objects they contain, you must either export a facility or an eRoom.

Note: All exported files are removed after a finite period of time, specified by the site administrator in the Server Tuning dialog box in the eRoom 7 MMC snap-in.

To export an eRoom:

  1. Go to eRoom Settings.

  2. In the button bar at the top, click "Export this eRoom".

eRoom exports the eRoom and creates an .erm file. The Export page opens and contains a link for downloading the file.

  1. On the Export page, click the link to download the .erm file and save it to disk.

In the File Download dialog box, click "Save".

  1. In the Save As dialog box, specify a file name and location and click "Save".

  2. Click "OK" to return to eRoom Settings.

Referenced members in the eRoom (including deleted members) are exported, as well as eRoom information and files. The eRoom's facility and community information is not exported.

A referenced member is any member who is:

To export a facility:

  1. Go to Facility Settings for the facility you want to export.

  2. In the button bar at the top, click "Export this Facility".

  3. On the Export page

  1. Click "OK".

eRoom exports the facility and creates an .erf file. The Export page opens and contains a link for downloading the file.

  1. On the Export page, click the link to download the .erf file and save it to disk.

  2. In the File Download dialog box, click "Save".

  3. In the Save As dialog box, specify a file name and location and click "Save".

  4. Click "OK" to return to Facility Settings.

The following is exported:

Community (member) information is not exported.

To export a site or a community:

  1. Lock all eRoom servers using the eRoom 7 MMC snap-in.

  2. Go to the Communities page of Site Settings, and below the communities table, click "export community".

  3. On the Export page

  1. Click "OK".

If you are exporting a site, eRoom asks you to confirm by clicking "OK" again.

eRoom exports the site or community and creates an .erc file. The Export page opens and contains a link for downloading the file.

  1. On the Export page, click on the link to download the .erc file and save it to disk.

  2. In the File Download dialog box, click "Save".

  3. In the Save As dialog box, specify a file name and location and click "Save".

  4. Click "OK" to return to Site Settings.

  5. Unlock the eRoom servers using the eRoom 7 MMC snap-in.

The following is exported:

The following is not exported:

"Locked account" errors are ignored if the member is exported/imported again.

Exporting guests

If the name of a guest group whose native community is not exported conflicts with a group in the same community, eRoom makes the name unique by appending, in parentheses, the name of its native community to the original group name. For example, the "Managers" group from the Finance community becomes "Managers (Finance)". If the modified group name needs further modification to keep it unique, eRoom adds a space and a number (for example, "Managers (Finance) 2").

Importing

An eRoom, facility, or community created in an Advanced installation site can be imported into a Standard installation site.

When importing eRooms/facilities/communities, eRoom matches members by their login names.

Who can import

To import an eRoom:

  1. Go to the Facilities page of Community Settings in the community into which you want to import the eRoom.

  2. Below the facilities table, click "import eRoom" to open the Import eRoom page.

If you are a site administrator, and the community has at least one facility, you can click "use manual provisioning" to pick from a list of facilities available in the community.

If you are a site administrator, and the community has at least one facility, you can click "use manual provisioning" to pick from a list of facilities.

  1. On the Import eRoom page, click "Browse" to locate the .erm file for the exported eRoom, and then click "Open".

  2. Optionally, change the Name and URL of the file you are importing.

  3. If you have permission to add guests to the community, you can decide what to do with imported members that match existing members in another community; either ignore them or merge them with the existing members they match. If you don't have permission to add guests, these choices don't appear and eRoom ignores imported members who match existing members in other communities.

  4. Click "OK" to import the eRoom or facility.

For imported members that don't match any existing members in the target community, eRoom creates new members native to the target community.

For imported members that match existing members native to the target community, eRoom matches (merges) them with the existing native members.

For imported members that match existing members of a different community, unless you decide to "ignore" such members, eRoom matches (merges) these members with the existing members and brings the merged members into the target community as guests.

To import a facility:

  1. Go to the Facilities page of Community Settings in the community into which you want to import the facility.

  2. Below the facilities table, click "import facility" to open the Import Facility page.

If you are a site administrator, you can click "use manual provisioning" to choose servers manually.

Click "Next".

If you are a site administrator, you can click "use manual provisioning" to choose servers manually.

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

  1. On the Import facility page, click "Browse" to locate the .erf file for the exported facility, and then click "Open".

  2. Optionally, change the Name and URL of the file you are importing.

  3. To complete this procedure, continue with step 5 in the preceding procedure.

To import a community:

  1. Lock all eRoom servers using the eRoom 7 MMC snap-in.

  2. Go to the Communities page of Site Settings.

  3. Below the communities table, click "import community".

  4. On the Import page, click "Browse" to locate the .erc file for the exported community (or site), and then click "Open".

  5. Decide what to do with imported members that match existing members in other communities in the site. Either ignore them, add them as new accounts, or merge them with the existing members they match.

If there are matching members, and you choose to "add them as new accounts", see Adding matching members as new accounts.

If there are matching members, and you choose to "merge them with the existing members they match", then the matching members are silently merged with the existing members (the existing member is the "surviving" member). The imported member (now merged into the existing member) becomes a member of all communities, eRooms, groups, and so on, that the surviving member belongs to. The surviving member is made a guest of the imported community.

  1. Click "OK" to import the community.

  2. Unlock the eRoom servers using the eRoom 7 MMC snap-in.

Matching members

During a community import, eRoom automatically "disambiguates" the login names of imported members who match existing members in other communities in the site. These members are imported as deleted accounts that only become active when the administrator provides new login names for them.

If the administrator chooses to "add them as new accounts" during the import, a page at the end of the import process shows how many matched members were found and whether or not "require email addresses" is true for the community, as follows:

...or...

If there's a login-name conflict with a new name you provide, you must pick a new address or login name.

...or...

In this case, members are still matched on login name, but the conflict resolution page asks for an email address rather than a login name. If a conflicting member has an email address, eRoom populates the email field with it. If there's a conflict with the email address, select another one.

Groups

Groups are matched on group name. Since a group's name only has to be unique in its community, eRoom does not check for matches in other communities. When importing v6 eRooms/facilities, eRoom imports groups and their members, matching any existing groups with the same name. When importing v7 eRooms/facilities, the groups are exported with no members, and the empty groups match any existing groups with the same name.

No email address

For a community import, members who don't have an email address are imported and are allowed to login using their login names.

During a facility or eRoom import, if imported members have no email addresses and the community requires email addresses, the members are imported as new accounts using the original login names, and an error is put on the accounts that will get cleared whenever an email address is provided. While the accounts are in error, the members cannot login to the site. The administrator can fix-up the accounts later. If there are members who have email addresses, but they're not used as their login names, eRoom replaces the login name with the email address. After import, the members are able to login to the site.

No password

eRoom puts an error on the account of any imported member that lacks a password after all matching is finished. For instance, if an account was authenticated against a directory connection before being exported, and it fails to match any directories after being imported, it falls into this state.

While in this state, the member's account appears in member lists with an error symbol () with a ToolTip explaining that the member lacks a password.

You can clear the error by matching the member against a directory and syncing the directory, or by creating a password via the Change Password button.