The export feature allows you to copy the objects in a WorldServer configuration from one server to another. This feature is especially useful if you have configured WorldServer on a test system and you now want to start production work on another server, using the same configuration. The feature is often referred to as deployment.

After you select objects for export, the system gathers information about the objects and, optionally, any objects that they refer to. It writes this information as a collection of XML elements to a file that uses a format internal to WorldServer—ExportObjectDefinitions.tml.

The export includes each object only once in the output file, even though the object may participate in multiple ways among the exported objects. For example, a user that belongs to multiple exported locales is still exported only once in the ExportObjectDefinitions.tml file.

You can export the following objects:

• AIS properties (See the list below for details of which AIS properties are exportable.)
• Attributes (of other exportable objects)
• Cost models
• Cost model rules
• Filter configurations
• Human actions
• Linkages
• Locales
• Mounts
• Recurrences
• Scoping configurations
• Terminology databases
• Terminology database groups
• Translation memories
• Translation memory groups and their related configuration information
• User types
• Users
• Vendors
• Workflow phases
• Workflow roles
• Workflows
• Workgroups

AIS properties. You may choose to export AIS properties for any AIS path, subfolder, asset, or any combination of these. (If you select a folder, its contents are automatically selected.) Only properties that you have explicitly set for a particular path are exported. When you import the AIS properties on a new system, the corresponding mount should exist already on the new system. The import process cannot create the mount for you. (Although mounts are exportable, they are not referenced by AIS properties. You must export the mounts independently.) If the mount does not exist, the import still succeeds, and it reports any paths not found.

The following AIS properties are exported:

• Locale
• Context URL
• Comments
• Translation memory (for target assets)
• Term database (for target assets)
• Encoding
• Access Control: View, Read, Write, and Change ACL
• Any custom AIS properties you have created

Attributes. Note the following information about exporting attributes:

• Only the attributes of exportable objects are exportable. For example, user attributes may be exported because users are exportable. But project attributes may not be exported because projects are not exportable.
• Files referenced in an attachment attribute are never exported. The path to the attached file is exported with the attribute, but not the actual file. Therefore, the path is not valid unless the referenced attachment exists in the same location in the new deployment. For example, let's say you export an object with an attachment C:\MyImages\image1.jpg. When you deploy that object on a new system, the attachment still points to the old location. So you must either create C:\MyImages\image1.jpg on the new system or update the path to the attachment after deployment.