What Constitutes a Structural Change to the Database?

Your customization work may require you to change the structure of the database. Some changes only affect the Archibus data dictionary, while others require changes to the physical tables used by the Archibus applications. If the physical database requires a change, you will need to coordinate the changes to the Archibus Data Dictionary with the physical database tables.

The Schema Change Wizard provides the tools to update the physical structure of the database to reflect the current definition of the Archibus data dictionary. In doing this, the Schema Change Wizard:

• instructs the database to store your data using this new structure.
• validates foreign keys affected by the changes to the data dictionary.

Changing the Database Structure

The following actions change the structure of the physical SQL database itself, and not just the Archibus data dictionary. These actions require that your run the Schema Change Wizard.

• Define a new table in the Archibus Tables table.
• Define a new field in the Archibus Fields table.
• Delete a field in the Archibus Fields table.
• Change the definition of a field by changing any of the following fields in the Archibus Fields table:
• Allow Null
• Data Type
• Decimals (only for Numeric data types)
• Default Value
• Primary Key
• Size (only for the Char, VarChar, LongVarChar, and Numeric data types)
• Table Name
• Validate Data?
• Field Name  -- If the field contains data, the data will be lost.
• Fields to Validate -- If the only change to the structure is a change to the fields to validate, then you do not need to re-create the tables when your run the Schema Change Wizard. You can choose to update existing table structures and select the checkbox to re-create foreign keys.
• Validating Table -- If the only change to the structure is a change to the validating table, then you do not need to re-create the tables when you run the Schema Change Wizard. You can choose to update existing table structures and select the checkbox to re-create foreign keys.

All other changes to the data dictionary can be implemented by restarting the application server. This clears the memory and rereads the new values into memory.

See Also

General Procedure for Changing the Structure of the Database