Exporting and importing your configuration of SIA can be very handy when you need to roll-out multiple with the same setup or just needs a backup.
This article will guide you through how to export the configuration and how to import into another SIA.

The following data will be exported and imported from SIA:

• Settings
• Instances
• Items
• Mappings
• Network configuration

In order to get access to the Export & Import tool go the system:

• In the SIA portal go to  System
• In the settings view locate  Export and import configuration

Import of configuration

Importing a configuration on SIA is fairly simply and does not break your existing system. All you have to remember is to install the Connectors on forehand. In case you already have a configuration the import will not delete anything it will just import the new configuration in parallel with the existing one.

To export the configuration of SIA follow these steps:

• Locate the Export and import configuration section on the System page
• Click Import button. A dialogue will open from where you can import the configuration
• In the dialogue click Select SIA configuration button. This will open a file system browser dialogue
• Browser your file system and find the SIA configuration you wish to upload and press open. The file must be in .json format
• When the filename appear in the dialogue press  Import. A spinner will start and keep spinning while it is importing
• Close the dialogue and validate the configuration is imported.

Export of configuration

Exporting the SIA configuration gives you the great benefit of being able to keep backup of your setup or to distribute it if multiple SIA requires same setup.

In order to export the configuration do the following:

• Locate the Export and import configuration section on the System page
• Click the Export button. The export will not take place
• Wait for the to finish. Select a destination on your drive to save the configuration.

Browsing & modifying configuration file

The configuration files comes in a format called JSON. JSON stores the value in human-readable text in structured objects that consists of a name and value.
Example of a JSON snippet from the configuration of SIA could partly look like:

{
    "plugins": [
        {
            "name": "siemens_s7",
            "title": "Siemens S7",
            "description": "Application for Siemens S7 PLCs",
            ...
            "devices": [
                {
                    "name": "Bottle Machine using Siemens S7",
                    "address": "10.20.30.50",
                    "rack": 0,
                    "slot": 0,
                    "items": [
                       {
                            "id": 4,
                            "name": "Start counter",
                            "address": "DB109.DBX2.0",
                            "mappings": [],
                            ...
                        },
                        ...
                    ],
                    ...
             ]
       }
}

To modify it load the configuration into your favorite JSON editor or use a free online.

For information of the format please refer to our API as the API uses the same format.