5.5

Table Of Contents
Managing Catalog Items
Catalog items are references to vApp templates and media files. If you have the appropriate rights, you can
copy, move, rename, or delete catalog items in your organization's catalogs. You cannot modify catalog
items in catalogs that have an external subscription.
After you add vApp templates or media files to a catalog, you might need to modify the CatalogItem objects
that represent them. Your rights to manipulate catalog items depend on the source from which the catalog
items were created.
n
If you are a catalog author or an administrator, you can copy, move, delete, or rename catalog items
that were uploaded, imported, or captured to a catalog that your organization owns, whether or not the
catalog is published externally. Changes you make to an externally published catalog are replicated to
all of the catalog's subscribers when those subscribers synchronize their copy of the catalog.
n
You cannot make changes to catalog items in catalogs that have an external subscription.
Changes to a catalog item increment the version number of the item and its containing catalog. See “Version
Numbers,” on page 198.
In addition to providing storage for locally created vApp templates and media files, catalogs provide a
flexible publication mechanism that supports distribution of content to other organizations and clouds. If
your organization allows it, you can publish a catalog to external consumers. You can also subscribe to
catalogs that external sources publish, although catalog items in such catalogs cannot be managed by
subscribers. See “Catalog Administration,” on page 197.
Copy or Move a Catalog Item
A Catalog object includes links that implement copy and move operations for the catalog items it contains.
To copy or move a catalog item from a source catalog to a target catalog, POST a
CopyOrMoveCatalogItemParams element that contains a reference to the catalog item to move to the copy or
move link of the target catalog.
Prerequisites
n
Verify that you are logged in as a user with the Catalog Author role, as an organization administrator of
the organization that owns the catalog, or as a system administrator.
n
Verify that the target catalog does not have an external subscription.
Procedure
1 Retrieve the XML representation of the source catalog.
Use a request like this one:
GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/catalog/32
2 Examine the Catalog element to find the CatalogItem elements it contains.
Each CatalogItem in the CatalogItems container has name, type, and href attributes. If you need more
information about a catalog item, you can retrieve it with a GET request to the URL in its href attribute.
3 Retrieve the XML representation of the target catalog.
vCloud API Programming Guide
76 VMware, Inc.