Transportable Databases

Transportable databases are used for copying data between existing databases. The databases may be on different computers.

A transportable database can store an entire database, or parts of a database, or even data from several databases. It can include both data from the database file and data from additional files such as those kept in the Remote Roots.

Transportable databases allow the integrity and quality of data to be maintained when copying it from one database to another. All the relationships in the database are maintained as long as all objects involved in the relationship are copied at the same time, or already exist in the database.

The transportable and the on-premise databases may have different database versions. You can copy data from a transportable database that has earlier database version than the on-premise database. However, you cannot copy data from transportable database that has a newer version than the on-premise database unless you update the on-premise database.

Typically, a transportable database would be used to:

• Transfer data between multiple sites within an organisation.
• Send data to or from contract teams working on particular projects.
• Send data to Autodesk for investigation.

Transportable database files can be copied using the Windows Explorer or other file-copying tools.

Note: A transportable database must be closed in InfoAsset Manager before it can be moved or copied. You should not use standard Windows tools to copy on-premise databases, except for normal backup purposes.

Using a transportable database

To copy data from a database other than the current database and create a transportable for pasting the copied data to:

1. Choose OpenOpen/Create database from the File menu. The Open/create dialog is displayed.
2. Choose which type of database you want to open.
3. Click OK. The Open Database dialog is displayed. See Open a Database for further information.
4. Select the relevant database and click OK.
5. Display a tree view of the database, if it is not already displayed, by selecting New Explorer window from the Window menu.
6. Select OpenOpen new transportable database from the File menu. A standard Windows Save as dialog is displayed.
7. Type a name for the transportable database.
8. From the Database version dropdown, choose which database version is to be used for the new transportable database.
9. Click OK.

   The transportable database is given an ICMT extension. An Explorer view of the transportable database is displayed.

   You can now copy data to the transportable database from the opened database.

10. When you have finished copying data to the transportable database, close the Explorer view.

Open a transportable database

A transportable database can be opened and viewed in an Explorer window.

To open a transportable database

1. Select OpenOpen transportable database from the File menu. A standard Windows Open dialog is displayed.

   This dialog displays all standard transportable databases (which have an ICMT extension).

2. Select the transportable database file and click Open.

The database is then displayed in an Explorer View.

Note:

• A transportable database of version earlier than v12.0 must be updated before it can be opened.
• An earlier format transportable database that is newer than v12.0 may be opened read-only and items copied from the transportable to the current database without the need for updating. Prompts will be displayed as appropriate.

See below for instructions on updating a transportable database.

Update a transportable database

You may want to update a transportable database when you want to paste data from a database that has a newer version than it.

To update a transportable database

1. Select Database updateUpdate transportable database from the File menu.

   The Update Transportable Database dialog is displayed. In this dialog:

2. Click Browse.

   A standard Windows Open dialog is displayed.

3. Select the applicable transportable database file. Transportable databases have an ICMT extension.
4. Click Open. The Open dialog closes and the name of the selected transportable database is displayed in the Update Transportable Database dialog.
5. In the Update to dropdown, select the database version that you want the transportable database to be update to.
6. Click Open. The transportable database will now be formatted with the selected version.