Installing bulk application templates

Niagara 4.8 and later supports installing application templates using bulk deployment. You accomplish this by importing bulk templates to the station database via the Template Manager view. The workflow is very similar to deploying component and device templates, with a few key differences that are outlined here.
Prerequisites:
  • Application templates will not install to a station where the platform does not have all required modules installed, including any modules containing required PX pages or images.
  • Target stations must have the Job and Template services already installed.
  • The WB (-wb) runtime profile is required to install templates.

Keep in mind that only one application template can be installed on a station at any one time. Deploying multiple instances of an application template to a station is not meaningful since only the contents of the last application template installed will exist on the station. The real benefit of using the bulk deployment feature is that the template configurations can be stored in an Excel sheet instead of having to enter them by hand during installation.


Perform the following steps:
  1. Expand Station > Config > Services in the Nav tree and double-click the TemplateService.
    The Template Manager view opens.
  2. Click the Bulk Deploy from Excel button.
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    The File Chooser window opens.
  3. Click an Excel file to import and click Open.

    The job deploys the template instances contained in the Excel worksheets to the station. First it generates template components for all template instances. Then it applies the input, output, relation, and configuration elements to the generated template components. This allows links and relations to be established between deployed template instances.

    The Template Bulk Deploy progress window opens to show the deployment progress.

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    CAUTION: Clicking Cancel on the progress window stops the bulk deployment at the point of progress. It does not restore any template component deployments that are already processed.
     
     
    NOTE: If the Excel file is associated with an application template, the Install Application Template wizard will run. It will allow the user to confirm the Excel file selection, choose to make a station backup before installation, and install the application template. It will not prompt for configuration values, but will use the entries from the Excel sheet. It will show installation progress, and notify the user when the installation is complete.
     

Once the deployment process is complete, the Template Manager view displays the generated template instances.

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The Wire Sheet view shows the template components generated, linked and configured.

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