Importing and exporting rate books to XML

You can export and import rate books to XML to move rate books from one environment to another without having to move the entire PolicyCenter database. The XML exported or imported includes the rate book and the rate routines associated with the rate book.

On import PolicyCenter checks that the imported rate book does not conflict with data already defined in the target environment. The XML can contain additional parameters in a rate table definition. However, the XML cannot contain fewer parameters. For example this can occur when you need to update a rate table definition in multiple instances. In one instance of PolicyCenter, you update the rate table definition by adding a new parameter, then export the containing rate book to XML. You then import that XML to second PolicyCenter instance.

If a rate book contains rate tables that are referencing, not owned, then the exported XML contains links to the rate table content, rather than the rate table content.

If you are moving to a system which does not contain the referenced rate table content, you can change the rate table storage to be self-contained. When you export a self-contained rate book, the XML includes the rate table content.

Important: Making the rate book self-contained changes the relationship between the rate book and included rate tables. When a rate book references a rate table, that rate table is stored in another rate book which owns it. When making the rate book self-contained, PolicyCenter replaces the reference with a copy of the rate table. Therefore, the storage is duplicated in both rate books. You cannot undo this change.

Precautions

Observe the following precautions to avoid public ID clashes or unexpected behavior:

Create the initial development and test environments. Make certain that the new environment includes all relevant rate books. That is, include any book that contains a table that the new rate book will reference.
To modify an active book, export the rate book to XML from the production environment to the stage/test environment. Developers can work on their changes separately then merge their changes back to PolicyCenter. See Merge rate books.
Make certain that each environment has a unique public ID prefix. See Environment parameters for details.
Do not change the exported XML before importing it into another environment. Do not edit the XML outside of PolicyCenter. Doing so may create unpredictable results.
Do not use export and import rate books to move rate books between versions of PolicyCenter. The data format may change between versions. Therefore, use the upgrade procedure which upgrades rate books to the new PolicyCenter version. Then you can export rate books from the newly upgraded version to another PolicyCenter instance with the same version.