The integration schema is delivered as a CMF file in the SmartPlant Foundation system as a document in the seed database. In the past, the user managed all schema extensions in the single CMF file, making it difficult for users to perform concurrent edits and to update the SmartPlant Foundation database after making small changes. The current process relies on the ability to manage schema extensions in the CMF file as a set of referenced physical pseudo files. Since the SmartPlant Foundation authoring schema is most often a self-contained extension to the CMF file, it is a good candidate for implementation in a separate physical pseudo file.
If you use custom pseudo files to customize the schema, only custom schema objects,
such as new class and interface definitions, are saved in the custom pseudo file.
Any changes that you make to delivered schema objects are saved in the CMF_Ver file.
Save the custom schema objects to the database by loading the custom pseudo file using
the Schema Import wizard. To load any changes made to delivered schema objects, you
must also import the contents of the CMF_Ver file.
The CMF file is made up of configuration blocks (ConfigBlock) that contain schema that is applicable to given configurations (Config) of the schema. A configuration can be used in two ways; to identify the SmartPlant Foundation version or to segment the schema into different parts. A configuration used to segment the schema is referred to as a pseudo file and has IsPseudoFile="True" set in its header at the top of the CMF file. All ConfigBlocks contain at least one of each type of Config. For example, one is to identify the version of the schema to which it is applicable, and the other, a configuration in which the actual schema is defined.
To extend the CMF schema using a separate physical file, it is necessary to create a new Config that is set up with IsPseudoFile="True" and also identified as a physical file. This is done in the Schema Editor, as described in the Pseudo Files and ContainerID Section below.
The delivered CMF file comes with a pseudo file preconfigured for custom extensions called “Customization,” but this is not set up as a separate physical file. This can be switched to a separate physical file in the Schema Editor as described in the Pseudo Files and ContainerID Section below.
Once the schema is created in a separate pseudo file, it is possible to selectively compare and load this into SmartPlant Foundation. It is very important to understand how the compare process works using the ContainerID.