Background Package Generation

Using FEM

You can use the flexible execution model to run documentation package generation in Capital E/E Publisher as a task in the background.

Publication via background tasks can be used to produce large packages, or ones that need to be frequently produced, saving precious time and resources. It also enables packaging automation via scheduled tasks and trigger events. See the Running Capital Tasks in the Background section of the Capital Design Tools - Common Functions User Guide for further information.

Note

Please consider:

• Background package generation must be run across the same operating system platforms to avoid file parsing errors.

• Background generation of packages does not honor the client configuration setting but instead uses the configuration setting from the machine where CIS is running.

Generate a Capital E/E Publisher documentation package as detailed in Generating Documentation, ensuring that you select the Background Run checkbox at the bottom of the Generate Documentation dialog.

Note

If you want to use scheduling when running documentation generation in the background, you can use web services to schedule it. See the WebServiceDevelopment.pdf document located in the doc folder of your Capital installation for more information about web services.

Checking the Background Run checkbox drives Capital E/E Publisher to push the documentation generation task to a central, high specification server as portrayed in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Example Background Package Generation Representation

Note

When generating a documentation package as a background task, the package will be saved to the directory specified relative to the machine executing the task. To ensure the package is accessible, it is recommended saving it to a network location.

If the package is not saved to a network directory, you may need to determine the machine where it was generated in order to locate the file. To find this information, access the task status window from the ribbon under Capital > Layout > Tasks.

Alternatively you can also choose to generate publisher packages by using a web service task. This option can be especially useful in automating internal use cases such as Capital Change Explorer packaging on specific design change triggers, for example when a design’s release level changes versus its baseline (see Figure 20).

Note

All relevant licenses are consumed while the generation task is running, just as they are when generating using the user interface.

The output and resources locations would usually point to a network location (unless running on an independent local installation, where both the integration server master and workers sit on the same machine), and where you have both write and read privileges respectively. These must be shared network locations because in FEM master-worker setup, the task can run from any of the workers from where both the paths must be accessible. See the Running Capital Tasks in the Background section of the Capital Design Tools - Common Functions User Guide for further information.

The below tags are not needed when changing only the border -->​

Webservice Package Generation

A webservice example is available at <your_install_location\doc\webservicE/Examples\server\src\com\example\webservice\server> which can be used as a starting point. By default it will publish a Capital Change Explorer package on design release level change, referring to the base revision (to which the current design is compared) by virtue of an environment variable.

A compiled version of this example, ready for use, can be found online in the Siemens Communities. You will need a SupportCenter login to access this.

Figure 20: Example Package Generation Representation Using a Web Service

Configuring

the PackagingTask.xml File

Figure 21 shows an example file, indicating the entries that can be edited.

The XSD (XML Schema Definition) file is also available should you wish to create your own customized Packaging XML files. It is located in <your_install_location\doc\webservice\data\PackagingTask_Example.xml>

Figure 21: Example PackagingTask.XML File

Parameter Name	Supported Packagers	Supported Values	Description
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	None	This is the parent element for all other elements.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	overwrite duplicate cancel	This is to instruct the task what to do if the export location and package name are same. There are three options available: "overwrite", if this option is chosen, the existing package would be overwritten. "duplicate", if this option is chosen, then either a new package is created or a new packet folder will be created depending on what the flag "duplicate_uses_new_folder" is set as. "cancel", if this options is chosen, then the package generation will be cancelled.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, JA, RU, ZH	Defines the language the package is generated in.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows	continue cancel	This decides whether to continue or cancel the generation of package if an application package is created at a location where a data packet is already present or vice-versa.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	true false	When a package with the same name is generated at the same location of pre-existing package and you choose Duplicate: If this parameter is set “true” then a new package folder will be generated with name “PackageName_1”. If this tag is set “false” then within the same package a different packet folder will be generated with name “packet_1”.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer	true false	This parameter enables multiple users to generate multiple Change Explorer packages in the same folder when executing with a run in the background process. If tag is “true” then while generating multiple folders using a “Run in a background process” a “UserId” folder will be created at that location and packet will be created in that folder. If tag is “false” then multiple packets will generate in the given location without creating “UserId” folder.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer		The effectivity ranges for which the packages should be generated, for example:
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Automotive Publications	The name of the project.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Any Packager	The name of the packager. Custom packagers name are also supported.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Name of the package not exceeding 255 characters	The name of the package.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Valid location, for example: Local/network path	The path to where the packet should be generated to.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Valid location, for example: Local/network path	The path to the resources folder. For example:
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	-	The path to folder, where configuration files are read from.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows	image file path	The path to the jpeg image which is used as package thumbnail.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Description of the package not exceeding 255 characters	The description of the package.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer	Name of the harness style set	The style set to be used that will be applied to generated harness diagrams.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Name of the logic style set	The style set to be used that will be applied to generated logic diagrams.
<logic_border_library <logic_border_symbol <xc_border_library <xc_border_symbol	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	Name of the wiring or harness border library and border symbol	The border library and symbol to be applied to the generated diagram when only changing the wiring or harness border during publishing. Note The and tags are not needed when only changing the border. However, if both border and style set tags are used, the package will be published using the style set tags.
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	SVG Diagrams Links to Documents Options Face Views Application Files And so on...	This parameter defines the generators which need to be included. A generator is specified with the tag. For example, for an HTML packager SVG Diagrams Component BOM ... ... Only the generators which are valid for the selected packager must be given. These generator names are the same as you see in Publish UI. Custom generators can also be provided to this tag. Note: "Application Files" generator must be specified in the includes list for Service Explorer, Design Explorer and Change Explorer, if client needs to be generated. If only this generator is included, the packet generated will only contain the client files. If this generator is not included, the packet generated will be data only. For example: Application Files
	PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package	-	The list of configurations which should be used to filter the data. Each configuration is defined with a tag and surrounded by the tag. For example: 3 Door Right Hand Drive - Basic 3 Door Left Hand Drive - Basic
	Capital Service Explorer Capital Design Explorer Capital Change Explorer Capital Smart Flows PDF Package CGM Package S1000D Package		The scope for which the package is generated. Logic designs can be designated in the following way: Harness designs can be designated in the following way: Build lists can be designated in the following way: For a Change Explorer package, the scope should contain only two designs, for example:

Note

Some generators and packages are subject to the availability of certain licenses.

Background Generation - Location Considerations

The system uses the following considerations for handling scenarios where either different users or the same user point to the same output location when running generation tasks.

• For background tasks, the package would always be generated at $(output_loc)\username. This way, different users can point to same location and the packages would be generated in a folder starting with their username.

• Where the same user generates packages with same name to an existing output location, a flag in the XML file same_package_instruction is introduced, which has three options. overwrite - overwrites the package. For example, if at path c:\p1 there already exists a package with package name pack1, then it would be over-written.

duplicate - This functionality depends on the following settings in the packaging.xml file. duplicate true If the flag is set to true then when using the background generation workflow, it would be generated at $(output_loc)\username_index eg., if the output location is c:\test, and if a packet already exists at c:\test\username the packet would be generated at c:\test\username_1. The index would be incremented next time for the packet pointing to same location. If the flag is false the system creates a sub-package with name "p1_index", where index is the next available package index in the packet. For example, if at path c:\p1 there exists a sub-package1, then another sub-package with name pack1_1 would be created. The index would be incremented next time for the package with same name.

abort - Abort the package creation.

Parent Topic:

Generating Documentation in Capital E/E Publisher

Capital E/E Publisher User Guide, 2512.2606

Unpublished work. © 2026 Siemens