Importing DAR files in Composer

Is it possible to import an existing DAR file into the Composer?

I know a DAR file can be installed with the DAR installer. But i want to know what is inside a specific DAR file. I tried to unzip the DAR to the file system, but the Composer does not recognize this as an valid project.

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supratimch

I have a dar file. I want to import it in my composer project. Can anybody please explain the steps for that?

Hartmut_Clausen

From what I have learned that is not supported. If you have access to the project from which it was created, you can import that project. Otherwise you could install the DAR in a repository and import all the installed artifacts in a new project.

I have managed to unpack a DAR and to convert some of the contained files, but that is totally experimental and very error prone.

foroor

You can think of a DAR as a binary file that cannot be "decompiled" back to the source Composer project. This means you cannot import DAR into Composer and get a project.

You need to keep the Composer project around and treat it as "source" that gets modified and "compiled" into a DAR.

csebourn

Are there any future plans to support this? This is a common request. If not, what about the creating a project file in Composer which just bundles the entire project into a single file that can later be opened by composer?

foroor

It is one of the items in our roadmap but is not planned for the next release or so.

nwang5

One thing is you can check the download center to see if the dar file has a correspoding composer reference zip file to download. For example:

I once want to load prm.dar (Physical Record Manager) to composer. The download center has a prm.zip file. In composer, you can import--> General.Existing project into workspace--> select the archive file --> browser to the zip file and you will see a project showed and then import.

If you really need to load the dar file. Here is the steps I would go, load it to a repository. create a new composer project, import --> General .archive files-->select the ****.dar, select the 4 folders(artifacts..) only ,don't select the root.: and replace the old folders. This will give you a list of artifects in this dar. Check to see if it works , If it is not , you can import them back from repository and delete the old definitions. If you dar has a lot of stuff, then this will be a lot of work.

csebourn

The correct answer is "no". The Dar file does not contain the necessary project definition files. It seems like it would be an easy thing to fix so that the DAR could be unzipped and then "imported from an existing workspace".

nwang5

Maybe I was not explain it correctly. I knew the dar file will not have project reference file. But in download center, they normally have a differenct zip file that has the project reference. Here is an example : Don't try to create composer project from Documentum Records Manager DAR, Version 6.5 SP2 (DAR) , instead create it from Documentum Records Manager Composer Reference Project, Version 6.5 SP2 (Zip) . If it is a customized composer project , just zip the project file and load it back to composer as I instructed in my last email. If you only have the dar file without original project file. my recommendation was in the second paragraph of my last post.

KK_APJK_PREM

Hey Guys, i got this working by following the below procedure:

say for eg we have a dar called as xyz.dar

1. make a copy of that xyz.dar which is copy_xyz.dar

2. rename copy_xyz.dar to copy_xyz.zip

3. extract copy_xyz.zip which will show copy_xyz

Then you have to create a project in Documentum composer

1. File > New > other > Documentum Project then hit enter

2. in the Project Name change the name to the dar file name which you want to import i.e xyz

3. Once theproject created close composer

4. go to the workspace where the new composer project saved xyz

5. then copy the content of the copy_xyz (unzipped files ) to the new composer project saved xyz

6. then open the composer and validate the project (right click validate)

Now you should see the project in compsoer.