Override internal Designer resources

If you want to extend Semarchy xDI or change some of its internal behavior, you can make use of the xDI Designer override system.

Overview

In Semarchy xDI Designer, overrides consist of finding internal resources, copying them to your workspace, and modifying them. Designer recognizes your copy of the resource, and uses it in place of its built-in version.

One of the main uses of overrides is modifying templates. When you want to change the integration flow for an entire technology, you can override the corresponding template to add your own changes. As a template is a specific kind of process, you can modify its override like any other process.

However, overrides are not limited to templates. You can override most xDI resources.

Limitations

The override system is powerful, but can also lead to complications.

When you override an internal resource, you make a copy of the resource as it existed at that time. Your override does not benefit from Designer patches or updates to internal resources.

To keep your overrides updated, you must monitor changes to internal resources yourself, and modify your overrides accordingly.

Overriding internal resources can result in problems up to and including broken projects, or broken integration flows. If you are having issues with Semarchy xDI, contact Semarchy support for help before overriding internal resources.

Proceed with caution, and keep backups of your workspace.

How to override

To override a resource:

  1. Open the Internal Resources view.

    1. Open the main Window menu.

    2. Select Show View  Internal Resources to open the view next to the Project Explorer.

  2. Find a resource you want to modify.

  3. Open the context menu for the resource, and select Import Resource into Workspace.

By default, Designer imports resources copies into the global project, with the same folder structure as the internal resources. For example, templates would appear in a templates subdirectory of the global project.

Comparing override changes

To see how your override differs from its original, internal resource, you can use the built-in comparison functionality.

  1. Open the Project Explorer view.

  2. Find your override inside your projects.

  3. Open the context menu for the override, and select Compare With  Internal Resource.

Troubleshooting

When troubleshooting integration flows, you should first test them without resource overrides. Make a backup of your projects and workspace, remove your overrides, and test your flows in a test environment. Re-introduce your resource overrides gradually to make sure the changes do not cause any problems.

Take care when importing templates or resource overrides from older projects. They may introduce issues that are corrected in later product versions, and their changes should be reviewed carefully.