Create Uniface Archive Files

Uniface application resources can be packaged into Uniface archive files (UARs) for deployment.

During development, all generated runtime objects are compiled into standardized directories based on object type. The location of these directories is specified by the $RESOURCES_OUTPUT assignment setting in ide.asn.

The contents of each UAR file must conform to this structure. For example, if a UAR contains only Service components, they must be located in the /svc directory with the UAR.

To create the required UARs, you can do one of the following:

Configure the IDE to compile directly to a UAR.

Edit the $RESOURCES_OUTPUT setting to specify a UAR instead of just a directory. For example:
```
; ide.asn
[SETTINGS]
$RESOURCES_OUTPUT = .\resources\sales_app.uar
```
Restart the IDE and compile the desired objects. You can compile objects from the command line, or from IDE editors. For example, to compile all Form components starting with MY:
```
/frm MY* 
```
This results in a UAR that contains only a /frm directory containing the specified forms.
Repeat these steps for each UAR you want to create.

Use the Uniface Resource Manager (URM) to copy objects to a UAR.

The URM is a command line utility available in the ..\common\bin directory of the Uniface installation. For more information, see urm.

For example, to put all runtime object into a single UAR called MyApp.uar:

urm copy <UnifaceDataDir>\resources\*.* "<UnifaceDataDir>\project\MyApp.uar:*.*"

To put objects into different files according to the type of file:

urm split "<UnifaceDataDir>\project\MyApp.uar -components   ; to components.uar
urm split "<UnifaceDataDir>\project\MyApp.uar -global      ; to <Library>@<Lan>.uar
urm split "<UnifaceDataDir>\project\MyApp.uar -references  ; to <Library>.uar

Use ProcScipt to build your own archiving mechanism

The ProcScript functions $ude ("lookup") and $ude ("archive") enable you to script your build environments to automatically generate deployment archives. For more information, see $ude ("lookup") and $ude ("archive").

You can use $ude ("lookup") to get a list of compiled runtime objects and use $ude ("archive") to add the resources to an archive file, either as individual objects, or as lists of objects. For example:

operation addListsToUar
variables
 string vResourceList, vArchive, vType, vOptions, vName, vReturn
endvariables

; Create a list of resources, in this case form components
vResourceList = $ude("lookup", "resources_output;form", "*")

; Create a UAR with a description and add the list of forms
vArchive = "my_components.uar"
putitem/id vOptions, "description", "Archive with components"
vReturn = $ude("archive", "list", vResourceList, vArchive, vOptions)
								
; Create a list of service components and append it to the UAR				
vOptions = "append=true"
vResourceList = $ude("lookup", "resources_output;service", "*")
vReturn = $ude("archive", "list", vResourceList, vArchive, vOptions)

; Create a list of report components and append it to the UAR		
vResourceList = $ude("lookup", "resources_output;report", "*")
vReturn = $ude("archive", "list", vResourceList, vArchive, vOptions)
					
end

In combination with the IDE custom plug-in functionality, you can build your own archiving mechanism for maintaining application or patch distributions. For more information, see Customizing the Uniface IDE.

Use a third-party ZIP compression utility.

For example, WinZip allows you to drag and drop files into the archive file.

Caution: You must ensure that the directory structure conforms to the structure expected by Uniface. Otherwise, Uniface cannot locate the resources it needs at runtime.