 Specify the name-related fieldsThe following set of fields are specified in a more complex way. Notice that when the dialog is first entered, all the input fields that are greyed-out (not editable) and with all drop-down menus set to Clear, except for the Name field. If these options were left as-is, objects created by this Duplicate operation would have the Name field automatically generated by the application, and the rest of the fields would be left empty.
Rather than leaving these fields cleared, other options are available via the drop-down menu to the right of each field name. Depending on which option is chosen, the text entry field between the field name and the drop-down menu may be enabled. The available options are shown below:
The following is a detailed overview of every option and how it affects the final values of the fields for the objects created by the duplicate operation.
-
Auto - This option is set by default and available only for the Name field. The rest of the fields have the Clear option set by default. This is because the Name field cannot be left un-specified for a Duplicate operation (because IRM doesn't allow blank Names), so the default Auto option auto-generates a string value for the Name field for all objects created by this duplicate operation. If some other option and value were previously specified for the Name field, and then the Auto option got re-selected, the previous value would be cleared and the field would be locked for editing.
-
Clear - This option is set as default upon entering the dialog for all fields, except for the Name field, where it's not an available mode for selection. In all other cases, if selected, it clears whatever is already specified for the selected field and disables the text entry box. For example, if you selected Copy option for a particular field,
and later changed your mind and decided not to copy the value from the original object, but to leave it un-specified, without any string value, selecting the Clear option clears whatever value was specified before and leaves the field in the newly created objects blank.
-
Copy - Selecting this option copies the value of the field as-is (from the original object) and disables the text entry box. For example, if the Name field has the Copy option selected, the string value would be copied from the original Equipment object that was selected for Duplicate operation, and disabled for editing:
-
Append - copies the value of the field from the existing object and appends the string specified inline for the selected field, as this option enables it for editing:
In case some other option was previously specified for a field, selecting this option will clear whatever value was specified for the field and enable editing, so a custom string can be specified to append to the original value:
-
Name Generator - This option is enabled only for the Name and Alternate Name fields. If a Name Generator was previously specified ( see point 1) , the appropriate Name and Alternate Name fields are automatically set to the current template string values from that Name Generator:
Note that those fields are not further editable and can be changed only by selecting either another Name Generator, or None option, from the drop-down menu. Doing that will unlock the fields for editing, but will also leave the previously specified values.
In another scenario, for example, if you just opened the dialog and didn't specify a Name Generator, you can still select the Name Generator option from the drop-down menu for Name and/or Alternate name fields:
This unlocks the field values for editing and now you can specify custom Name and Alternate Name template string values:
-
Replace - Selecting this option enables simple replacement of the original field value (from the object being duplicated) with a custom string that is specified in the text box. This can be an ordinary string or a template that gets filled by the Name Generator given for the Replace item at the bottom of the dialog:
-
Search And Replace - This option is the most powerful and in many cases the most useful operation. It allows the source object to be used as a template, with parts of the fields being copied as-is while other parts are replaced with the output of a Name Generator. This mechanism is particularly convenient when the object being duplicated contains other objects, that also get duplicated.
While the Replace operation completely replaces the source string, this operation allows parts of the string to be selectively replaced -- a specific value is searched for and replaced with another value. If this option is selected, inline editing gets disabled for the selected field, any previous entry is cleared
and the rest of the parameters for this operation are taken from the Search and Replace fields at the bottom of the dialog:
The Search and Replace fields specify the strings which will be used to search for and replace with for any fields that are in "Search and replace" mode. Both fields are simple text entry fields and enabled for editing, except that the Replace field also includes a Name Generator drop-down menu, which will be addressed a bit later.
For example, let's assume there is a rack "template" object named "Rack Rm202-C<RackNum>" and an Equipment in that rack named "RME Rm202-C<RackNum>-FrU16". If you want to duplicate the rack, including the child Equipment 10 times, you can use the "Search and replace" option for the Name field with a Search string of "<RackNum>" and the Replace set to use a name generator with a Name template string of "##" and an initial value of 1:
The name generator will generate "01" the first time it's called, then "02" etc. The result will be the first rack named "Rack Rm202-C01" meaning the first rack in the C row in Room 202. That rack will have a child named "RME Rm202-C01-FrU16", meaning it's a Rack Mounted Equipment object in the specified rack and located at RU 16 in the Front Rack Space. Other Equipment could have the same names, but with different Front RU, Rear RU, or other Rack Space positions. In this way, an entire Rack full of equipment can be duplicated many times, with the Name, Alternate Name, Serial Number and Asset Number fields all set to different values for the Rack itself and all contained equipment.
The drop-down menu next to the Replace field applies the Name field template specified for the selected Name Generator (because the Name field is in Search and Replace mode):
The None option is selected by default and both input fields enabled for editing, in which case any constant string can be given there. However, when a Name Generator is selected from the drop-down menu, the Replace field gets populated with the Name template from the chosen Name Generator and is disabled for editing:
The idea behind this second Name Generator is that it will be applied once for each new top-level Equipment object that is created, and the resulting string will be used to fill out the template values for the top-level equipment and all contained equipment. In other words, it is possible to use a Name Generator to do a search-and-replace operation that puts a different value for each created Equipment. The benefit of this is that the same search-and-replace can be applied to the (five) name-related fields of child Equipment which have different names from each other, but which want to have a component of the name that includes a rack number, for example.
|
