Deprecated elements in 6.6 Extension Package Development

[jasong]

So, looking at my logs on import, it appears that I am doing a bunch of stuff that is going away.

Deprecated element, DV.Styles.SFDC.ButtonActiveStyle, found in extension metadata.xml! Support for StyleDefinitions in extension metadata.xml will end in the future. Please refer to the online help for updating your extension.

Deprecated element, DV.SNAttributeModification, found in extension metadata.xml! Support for DataShapes in extension metadata.xml will end in the future. Please refer to the online help for updating your extension.

Deprecated element, DV.User.Icon.16, found in extension metadata.xml! Support for MediaEntities in extension metadata.xml will end in the future. Please refer to the online help for updating your extension.

Two questions

(1) I am having trouble finding any online help regarding this issue "Please refer to the online help for updating your extension"

(2) Maybe this gets answered when I find #1, but.... What gives? Why? What is the justification for this? I really like the ability to import media, styles and DataShapes that cannot be edited. My package relies on these - if I need to pre-import editable datashapes and other entities before I install my package, that's not only inconvenient, but I can't have someone editing a data shape, my code relies on those being stable.

[thearonh · Accepted solution]

Great Questions -

Unfortunately 'refer to the online help' isn't the most descriptive, but that reference is to the revisions made to the 6.6 version of the 'ThingWorx Extension Development Guide' which is posted in the online help here: http://support.ptc.com/cs/help/thingworx_hc/thingworx_6.6_hc/index.jspx?id=ThingWorxExtensibility&action=show

The particular section inside the Developers Guide that will be helpful with the issue you are experiencing is titled 'Project and Extension File Structure'. This Section explains that the Entities xml (such as the StyleDefinitions, DataShapes and MediaEntities you refer to) for entities not associated with java code are being moved out of the metadata.xml and into their own individual xml files in a structure explained in the Developers Guide.  Hopefully this makes it easier for Extensions developers like yourself to view, make revisions and add/remove the Entities from your extension without the headache. (It also facilitates the use of 'Export to Source Control' a new 6.6 feature in Composer that exports entities in the same structure).

To remedy the concern from your second question, we will continue to support all these entity types in extensions for the foreseeable future.  The only thing that changed is the location of the xml that defines the specific entity.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense.

[jasong]

Perfect, thank you.

[brue]

The deprecated warning message has caused some confusion and is going to be reworded in the next release.

[jasong]

I do like the new method of handling non Java entities, definitely better than managing a whole single file. But yes, the warning was not so clear and also scary.