Hull administration files

The Hull administration files maintain a list of available projects.

Important: The project administration must be upgraded in Hull versions from 2023T2 onwards. The project data is not affected, but the converted projects are not accessible anymore in Hull versions 2023T1Rx or earlier.

In the project administration conversion, the hulladmin.xml administration file is converted into three separate XML files that each contain one part of the administration:

  • projectlist.xml – Contains the projects that are available to Cadmatic Hull. If the project is not in this file, it cannot be found.

    The file is located in the %HULLCENTRE%/hullcos folder of the Hull installation.

    The system creates a backup of the this file each time the file is updated. The backup file is named projectlist_<timestamp>.xml. The system keeps 10 backups. When more backups are created, old backups are automatically deleted.

    Note: Hull client machines can map project folders to different drive letters. If a different drive letter is used, the UNC path of the project must be added to the projectlist.xml file on each client.

  • projectsiteinfo.xml – A project-specific file that contains a reference to the projectlist.xml and also tells the system where to find the HCA for a COS project. It contains the project ID and the Hull Centre path of the project (the value set for %HULLCENTRE%). The file is also created for standalone projects.

    The file is located in the %PROJECTFOLDER%/administration/ folder.

  • hcaprojects.xml – Contains the list of the COS projects that are handled by the HCA, and it is stored on the same machine as where the HCA is installed. It also contains the COS host name and port number.

    The file is located in the %PROGRAMDATA%/Cadmatic/HCA/<HCA name> folder.

Contents and structure

The Hull administration consists of three different files maintaining a list of projects available to be opened. They contain the project ID, Hull Centre path, as well as the COS server and HCA service information. The project ID is added to both projectlist.xml and projectsiteinfo.xml and it ties the information in all three administration files together.

Example

The following is an example of a valid projectlist.xml file.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ProjectList>
 <HullProject>
   <ProjectId>projectID</ProjectId>
   <PathInHull>Root folder of project path, in a format accessible from Hull client machine</PathInHull>
   <State>created or predefined (or updating)</State>
   <Name>Project name</Name>
   <Description>User-friendly description for the project</Description>
 </HullProject>
 <HullProject>
   <ProjectId>2iWyo4tyh060wYZj4vhvyw</ProjectId>
   <PathInHull>C:\CADMATIC\HullServer232\HullProjects\Hull_2023T2.pms</PathInHull>
   <State>created</State>
   <Name>Hull_2023T2</Name>
   <Description>Hull 2023T2 August</Description>
 </HullProject>
</ProjectList>

The root element is <ProjectList> and any number of <HullProject> elements can be added under it, one for each project available in Hull.

Example

The following is an example of a valid projectsiteinfo.xml file.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ProjectSite>
    <hullcentre>\\host\cadmatic\hullserver232\hullcentre</hullcentre>
    <ProjectID>2iWyo4tyh060wYZj4vhvyw</ProjectID>
    <HcaHost>hostname</HcaHost>
    <HcaPort>5031</HcaPort>
</ProjectSite>

Example

The following is an example of a valid hcaprojects.xml file.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<HcaProjects>
  <Project>
    <ProjectPath>\\hostname\CADMATIC\HullServer232\HullProjects\Hull_2023T2.pms\Hull</ProjectPath>
    <CosHost>hostname</CosHost>
    <CosPort>5030</CosPort>
  </Project>
  <Project>
    <ProjectPath>C:\CADMATIC\HullServer232\HullProjects\Hull_2023T2.pms\Hull</ProjectPath>
    <CosHost>hostname</CosHost>
    <CosPort>5030</CosPort>
  </Project>
</HcaProjects>

Adding Hull data to a COS project:

  • Through a local drive – the HCA uses that local path to access the project data.

  • Through a shared drive – the project path will be converted to a UNC path. This remains true if the data is actually located on a local drive.