Background:

Promis.e support’s having predefined templates for the AppData\Roaming profile stored in a local Program Data folder. This is essential when the user deletes the Per User files/folders from the Local / Roaming App Data folder due to some of the issues. If the app data contains some custom dialog setting or other configs the user will have to manually copy the files or configure using Promis.e. This document will help with automatically deploying the files when they are not present.

On startup, Promis.e will search for predefined templates in the Program Data folder and copy them to the AppData\Roaming folder following certain rules described in this document. From that point, Substation will operate normally, either using the files in AppData\Roaming or creating new files if any are missing.

Steps to Accomplish

1. Make changes or Configure / Setup the desired dialogs according to the requirements. For example, Parts Database Manager, Insert Symbol by Device ID, By Part Number, etc. You can drag/drop the fields to change field order and use Column Chooser to add/remove fields. These types of changes are stored the active user’s AppData Roaming folder.

2. After the changes are made, close Promis.e and then using Windows Explorer browse to the location “C:\Users\(Current Windows User)\AppData\Roaming\Bentley” and copy the Promise folder. 


3. Next browse to the location “C:\ProgramData\Bentley\Promise CONNECT Edition\Configuration\Datasets\Promise” and create a new Folder named Templates. Inside the Templates folder create one more folder with the name AppdataRoaming.

4. Now paste the Promise folder that was copied in the Step 2. 

5. Create a new AppDataxml file in the location “C:\ProgramData\Bentley\Promise CONNECT Edition\Configuration\Datasets\Promise\Templates\AppDataRoaming” and add the below details and save the file. Or can be downloaded from below link. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

 <AppData ProductName="Substation" Version="1" Options="" />




6. Now the options need to be specified for rule set to copy the templates from the below options. The Options can be specified in the Appdata.xml as shown in the below image where options Force has been used. 

Note: If no options is specified Promis.e will copy from Templates to the User’s App data folder.

Version: The version of the Template and AppData folders will be numerically compared, and the Template files copied to the AppData folder if the Template version is greater than the AppData version.

Timestamp: Compare files based on the modified time. If the modified time of the template file is later than the modified time of the AppData file, then the AppData file will be overwritten by the template file.

Force: Every time the software starts, the Template files will be copied to and overwrite the AppData files

NoOverwrite: Existing AppData files will not be overwritten.




Important note: The “Timestamp” option should be used cautiously. Since AppData files are modified daily as users operate Substation, this option will be most effective if the files are modified and deployed during a period when users are not running the software. For example, if a template file is modified on Monday and deployed on Wednesday, but the user was running the software on Tuesday, there is a good chance that the “Timestamp” option will be ineffective since the template was modified on Monday, but the AppData file is newer, having been modified by the user on Tuesday. It would be best to modify and deploy the files on Tuesday night while users have exited Substation so that the files will be copied into the user AppData folders on Wednesday when they start Substation.