How to share modules among several ORM Designer projects

In this short tip I want to show you how to share modules (plugins) bewteen serveral ORM Designer projects.

Save module to shared location

As first step you can create or select any module you want to share among several projects and double click on it. As the next step select “Files and export” tab and enter a path to the shared directory to the “Data storage” edit window. In our example we store shared module in the location c:\sharedlocation\plugin.data.xml. The situation looks as in our first screenshot:

Import existing module

As the third step, open any project where you want to use this shared module. After that, select “Attach existing ORMD file to model” from “Import” menu.

Shared module in another model

In “open file” window select shared module data file. In our case we select file c:\sharedlocation\plugin.data.xml and click OK. After that shared module is attached to the model.

Conclusion

By using this technique you can share your models among several projects with minimal effort. Instead of repeatable creating of entities over and over again you can simply attach your shared modules to any project. And every change you create in the shared module will be automatically shared in all your models. This behavior can be used in any ORM framework (PHP Doctrine, Doctrine2, Propel or CakePHP).