Adding an Imported Package to Your Schema

The Import Packages Browser enables you to add one or more imported packages into the current schema.

Before you can import a package received from an exported package developer in another JADE database, you must first load the exported package schema into your JADE database.

To add an imported package to the current schema

  1. If the Import Packages Browser does not have focus, select the Import Package command from the Packages submenu in the Browse menu.

  2. Select the Add command from the Packages menu in the menu bar or the popup (context) menu when you right-click in the Import Packages Browser. (Alternatively, select the Add command from the Packages menu.)

    The Import Package dialog, shown in the following image, is then displayed.

  3. In the Select Package To Import combo box, select the package that you want to import from the list of available packages in the list box portion of the control.

    The list box not only lists all packages loaded into your database but at the first level in the hierarchy, the schema in which the package or packages were built. You can import packages at the second level (that is, schema‑name::package‑name); you cannot import the schema from which the package was built. Packages that have previously been imported into your schema or that are in the same schema branch are disabled.

  4. As a package is imported with the export name by default, if you want to import the package with another name, specify the name for the imported package that is unique within the current schema (that is, it cannot be the same as that of another exported package or imported package in the schema).

    The package name must start with an uppercase character and it cannot contain spaces.

  5. In the Package Description text box, enter descriptive free-format text for your imported package, if required.

  6. If you want to view the contents of the package, check the Show Details check box at the lower right of the dialog. (As package details are not displayed in this dialog by default, this check box is unchecked.)

    An alphabetical list of all classes in the package and the features within each class are then displayed in the list box on the Package Contents sheet, for display purposes only.

    Bubble help provides details about a class or feature when the cursor is positioned over a class or feature in the Package Contents sheet list box for a few seconds.

  7. To determine if the package conflicts in any way with the schema into which you are loading it, click the Import Conflicts tab.

    If no conflicts exist, the text No class conflicts is displayed. Any conflicts that exist are listed in the text box on the Import Conflicts sheet, as shown in the following example.

    As a schema can contain a local class and an imported class with the same name, this conflict arises when an imported class of the stated name already exists in the schema.

  8. Click the OK button to import the package. Alternatively, click the Cancel button to abandon the importation of the package.

The appropriate lists in the Class Browser are then update to show all imported classes and features in green.