Package Manager

Packages are directory structures of common and shared XBRL files which are installed at run-time and may redirect URLs which would otherwise access the web (through the web cache). Packages may or may not be zipped. If zipped they are left in compressed state for significantly faster operation.

Packages have manifests which may name and describe contents and provide URL remapping to files in the package.

The package manager allows installation, update, removal and deactivation/activation of packages. The command-line version is described under Command Line operation. The GUI package manager dialog features are:

Loading a package

  • To load a package from the local file system, under “Find taxonomy packages” press the “Locally” button. A file chooser will allow selecting a package by its file name.The file chooser for the Locally button has three choices in the file types combo box (to right of the File name and above the Open button).
    • Taxonomoy packages (.zip suffix), load a zip file and looks for a taxonomy package manifest (first) and Oasis catalog (second).
    • Manifest (.taxonomyPackage.xml file name) looks for an unzipped taxonomy package manifest, and includes all sibling subdirectories in the assumed package file tree.
    • Oasis Catalog (*catalog.xml file name) looks for an unzipped taxonomy Oasis Catalog file, and includes all sibling subdirectories in the assumed package file tree.
  • To load a plug from a web file, press the “OnWeb” button and enter a web URL. Only zipped taxonomy packages can be loaded this way (with a taxonomy package or Oasis Catalog file presumed somewhere inside the zip.

Viewing and managing packages

The top listbox shows loaded packages by their Name, Author, Version, Status (enabled or disabled), Date, whether an update (newer file date) is available, description, and license. Clicking on a plug-in provides further details in the lower panel (the columns are rendered as multi-line rows for easier reading. A selected plug-in in the lower panel also has three buttons:

  • Enable/Disable toggle: changes the enablement status without uninstalling, useful for those packages that add conflicting URL remappings and not intended to work together.  For example an EBA tester may have multiple packages installed for testing from different versions, and then only a single version should be enabled (that for which the URL remapping is expected to be enabled).
  • Move up/move down: changes the sequence of packages in the top panel, which changes the order of remappings when URL patterns may override each other (in the middle pane, see below).
  • Reload: if an update to a package is made while running, one may wish to have the package reloaded manually, with this button.
  • Remove: unloads the package and removes its entry from the configuration of installed packages.

The middle pane shows the order of redirections (resolved according to the sequence of remappings based on the order of the top panel).  Entries in the top panel can be moved up or down to reorganize the sequence of remappings as needed.

All changes to package enablement and so forth are local to the memory of the package manager, until its dialog is closed. Thus canceling will not save or effect operations, and likewise, changing a plug-in to disable it won’t change the saved package configuration information until the manager is closed (and not canceled).

Closing the package manager dialog

When close is selected, package changes are saved in the configuration (for subsequent GUI restarts and command line operation).

Canceling to exit the dialog will not save or effect any changes.

 

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