ZOM provides two special services for exchanging objects between separate development environments. Objects are exported from one environment using ZOMExport and imported into another environment using ZOMImport. These services use a machine-independent ASCII file format to exchange objects.

Objects being exchanged retain their object key identification. The object key enables ZOMImport to compare the objects being imported with the existing objects in the target environment. ZOMImport can then perform an intelligent merge of the imported and existing objects, detecting new objects, deleted objects, and changed objects.

Note: The Export and Import wizards provide a wider range of functionality when porting applications. ZOMExport and ZOMImport are suited only for exporting object dictionary definitions, where the wizards export generated applications and framework metadata.