Importing using the command prompt

The MBF Packager can be accessed from the command prompt. A separate application named MBFPackager.exe is used from the command prompt. This application is located in the \bin folder for the Business Portal. You can run this application from the command prompt to see a list of the commands and parameters. The MBF Packager is typically used from the command prompt during installations of Business Portal integrations.

Two types of importing are available from the command prompt: importing without an upgrade and importing while upgrading existing content. The upgrade process will attempt to preserve as many end-user settings as possible for a Business Portal integration.

Importing without upgrade

Importing without an upgrade is the simplest way to import package files from the command prompt. You can import the package files specified by a project file. For example, the following command imports the package files specified by the BPSDKInst.project project file.

mbfpackager.exe Import /P:"c:\BPSDK\BPSDKInst.project" /L:"c:\ImportLog.xml"

You can also choose to import package files from a specific folder, without using a package file. This is typically used when migrating an integration from one version of the Business Portal to a newer version of the portal.

Importing with upgrade

Importing with an upgrade requires that a “baseline” version of the packager files be available from the prior version of the Business Portal integration. Typically, this baseline data is the set of package files used to install the integration. You might choose to leave this installed in a known location on the target machine, or you might want to include it with your updated business portal integration.

When you run the import process with the upgrade, you specify the project file or the working directory that contains the package files you want to import. You must also specify the folder that contains the baseline data (package files from the previous version) for the integration. For example, the following import command will attempt to upgrade the existing data, based on the baseline data in the BPSDKV1 folder.

mbfpackager.exe Import /P:"c:\BPSDK\BPSDKInst.project" /B:"c:\BPSDKV1"
/L:"c:\ImportLog.xml"

As each package item is read from the project or working folder, a merge process is performed:

• The corresponding item from the baseline data and the Business Portal installation are compared to determine what changes were made by the user.
• The new packager item is compared with the corresponding baseline item to determine what changes were made.
• The two sets of changes are merged. If conflicts are found, they are handled based on the command line parameters or the project settings. If the ConflictResultion was specified as a command-line argument, that setting is used. If no command-line argument was specified, but a project file is being used, the ConflictResultion property in the project is examined and applied. If no command-line argument was specified, and no project file is being used, MBF Packager will use the default behavior for the specific type of packager item.