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How to Export Resources

Sometimes it could be useful to export resources, for example to backup a part of the resource tree or to save the state of the resource tree for demonstration and experiments.

Exporting Resources

The ACME CSE offers a simple and portable way to export single resources or a whole part of the resource tree. In the text UI when clicking on a resource a tab Services contains the service "Export Resource". When clicking on the "Export" button a resource and (depending on the "child resource" checkbox) its child resources are exported to a directory as a shell script with the current date and time. The directory is the tmp directory under the CSE's root directory.

Text UI - Export Resources Text UI - Export Resources

Text UI - Exporting Resources

The generated script contains the necessary commands to send Mca CREATE requests using curl commands over http for the exported resources.

One is free to make modifications to the exported resources as necessary, or to combine various resource scripts into a single script.

Importing Resources

The generated shell script contains three sections:

  • The variable cseURL that is set to the URL of a CSE where the resources will be imported again. This should be set to appropriate address when targeting another CSE.
  • Shell functions that construct the CREATE requests and send it using the curl command line tool.
  • At the bottom are the shell function calls with the originator, resource type, and resource representations.

Import

The resource representations can only contain the resource attributes that can be present in CREATE requests. This means, for example, that the resourceID of a resource is not present. This also means, unfortunately, that references between resource may be incomplete after an export and need to be set manually afterwards.

To import the resources in an export script just run the script in a (bash) shell:

Run the export script
$ sh export-20240316T131612.sh

Example Script

The following is an example of an export script that exports a container with two content instances and a subscription:

Example export script
#!/bin/bash
# Exported cnt6834189228603991262 from id-in at 20240316T131612,894875

cseURL=http://localhost:8080  # (1)!

function uniqueNumber() { # (2)!
    unique_number=""
    for i in {1..10}
    do
        unique_number+=$RANDOM
    done
    unique_number=${unique_number:0:10}
    echo "$unique_number"
}

function createResource() { # (3)!
    printf '\nCreating child resource under %s\n' $cseURL/$4
    printf 'Result: '         
    curl -X POST -H "X-M2M-Origin: $1" -H "X-M2M-RVI: 4" -H "X-M2M-RI: $(uniqueNumber)" -H "Content-Type: application/json;ty=$2" -d "$3" $cseURL/$4
    printf '\n'
}

# (4)!

createResource CDemoLightswitch 3 '{"m2m:cnt": {"rn": "switchContainer", "mni": 10, "acpi": ["acp3542208976028337519"]}}' 'cse-in/CDemoLightswitch'
createResource CDemoLightswitch 23 '{"m2m:sub": {"rn": "switchSubscription", "nu": ["cse-in/CDemoLightbulb"], "enc": {"net": [3]}, "nct": 1}}' 'cse-in/CDemoLightswitch/switchContainer'
createResource CDemoLightswitch 4 '{"m2m:cin": {"con": "off", "rn": "cin_KJyrTD7INf"}}' 'cse-in/CDemoLightswitch/switchContainer'
createResource CDemoLightswitch 4 '{"m2m:cin": {"con": "off", "rn": "cin_MQ5AK9WRbs"}}' 'cse-in/CDemoLightswitch/switchContainer'
  1. The variable cseURL is set to the URL of the CSE where the resources will be imported again. This should be set to the appropriate address when targeting another CSE.
  2. This function generates a unique number that is used for various identifiers.
  3. This function creates a resource in the CSE using the curl command line tool. The function takes four arguments: the originator, the resource type, the resource representation, and the parent resource's URL.
  4. From here on the script creates the resources. The createResource function is called with the originator, the resource type, the resource representation, and the parent resource's URL.

Exporting ContentInstances

Similar to exporting other resources, content instances from <container> and <timeSeries> resources can be exported via the text UI as a CSV1 file or copied as CSV data to the clipboard. This may be useful for backing up content or exporting data for further analysis.

Note

Exporting data from <flexContainerInstances> is not supported at the moment.

When selecting a <container> or <timeSeries> resource in the text UI the tab Services offers the service "Export Instances". When clicking on the "Export CSV" button a CSV file with the content and other information is exported to a file in the tmp directory under the CSE's root directory. When clicking on the "Copy CSV" button the CSV data is copied to the clipboard.

  1. Comma-separated values ↩