Customizing - General

Use the following parameters to customize the selected data source before you clone it.

Configuration file parameters are included below with the following_font.

General

Allow NULLs

Parameter: allow_nulls

Defines the default way of handling non-key items that are NULL in DMSII or contain bad values. When this parameter is set to True, the data item's da_options column will have its DAOPT_Nulls_Allowed bit set to True by Define/Redefine and Customize commands. This will result in the column having the NULL attribute. Conversely, if the parameter is set to False, the columns will have the NOT NULL attribute. In this case null data will be stored using specific values designated to represent nulls. Null character data will be stored as blanks. Null numeric data will be stored as either 0 or all nines based on the value of the null_digit_value parameter. Null dates will be stored using dates like 1/1/0001 (Oracle) or 1/1/1900 (SQL Server).

Ignore REQUIRED attribute

Parameter: inhibit_required_opt

This option instructs the Client to ignore the REQUIRED attribute of DMS items. The Client (version 6.5 and newer) honors the VALUE REQUIRED property for items that are members of SETS where NULL is not allowed. The Client uses this information to make such column(s) not allow nulls. Older Clients, which did not have access to this property, allowed nulls for such items when the Allow Nulls parameter was set to True. To ensure backward compatibility, the Client ignored the REQUIRED attribute for data sources created by older versions of the software. This prevented such column(s) from having their NULL attribute changed to NOT NULL when a Redefine command was run.

This parameter makes new data sources operate in the same way as they did with older Clients, which did not have access to the REQUIRED attribute. This is particularly useful when a date value of 0 represents a NULL date in DMSII, even though the item is not NULL in DMSII. This parameter enables the Client to store NULL dates and dates that have bad values as NULL, rather than using an artificial date to represent NULL dates, when applications expect this behavior.

Set blank columns to NULL

Parameter: set_blanks_to_null

This parameter indicates that the Client will store zero-length character data (that is, "") as NULL instead of a single space. This parameter only applies to columns that are not part of the index.

Allow NULL dates

use_nullable_dates

Allows the Client to treat a single MISER date in the index as nullable.

Use brackets around tables names that are reserved words

Parameter: bracket_tabnames

Allows the SQL Server Client to use table names that are reserved words by enclosing them in square brackets.

Ignore new data sets

Parameter: suppress_new_datasets

Indicates whether or not the Client will inhibit new data sets created during a DMSII reorganization from being mapped to relational database tables. If this parameter is set to True, the active columns for new data sets are set to 0. If you later decide that you want to replicate these data sets, enable the Active checkbox in the data sets properties page and then run a Redefine or a Customize command.

Caution

Do not mix Redefine and Customize commands, as the Redefine command will not work when you first run a Customize command. Using a Redefine with options command and specifying the –u option will allow the command to run, however, any customizations from the Customize command will be lost.

Use column prefixes

Parameter: use_column_prefixes

Extends the table name prefix specified in the DATASOURCES Client control table to all column names.

If a prefix is not defined, this setting has no effect.

Strip Data Set prefixes

Parameter: strip_ds_prefixes

This parameter makes the Define/Redefine and the Customize commands set the item_name_prefix column in the DATASETS table to the data set name. This is useful when all DMSII data item names use a common prefix; for example, using the data set name followed by a dash. This parameter provides a quick way of stripping those common prefixes without writing any user scripts or using the Customize command (as renaming every column requires a lot of work). If the prefix is an abbreviated form of the data set name (e.g. SVHIST instead of SV-HISTORY), start the Customize command and select the data set in the Data Sets view of the command. Open the corresponding Properties page by selecting the Properties icon . Finally, set the Item Name Prefix property to this value.

Enable DMSII links

Parameter: enable_dms_links

Allows Databridge to implement DMSII links. DMSII links are implemented using AA values as foreign keys. To use this parameter, you must set the Links parameter to True in the DBEngine control file. For more information, see the Databridge Host Administrator's Guide.

Track Variable Format data sets that have LINKS

Parameter: track_vfds_nolinks

Allows the Client to track variable-format data sets that contain links. The links themselves are not tracked or updated. When a record is created in a variable-format data set, links are set to NULL. If the application assigns the links to point to other records, the Client database will not contain these new link values until the variable-format data set is re-cloned. This parameter is enabled by default.

When this parameter is disabled, variable-format data sets are set to mode 11 after an initial cloning and do not get updated.

Propagate Type 0 changes for VF data sets

Parameter: global_type0_changes

The DBClntCfgServer program and the Administrative Console apply all customizations done to the fix part of a variable format data set to all the records types, as they all contain the exact same fixed part. Some sites have variable format data sets that have a large number of record types, if you are customizing a date in the fixed part using the Customize command, you only have to do this once and it gets applied to all the records types. This parameter is provided to allow users to disable this feature.

Extract embedded data sets

Parameter: extract_embedded

Embedded data sets are not normally handled by the Databridge Engine when INDEPENDENTTRANS is False, as the Client cannot apply fixups or updates. When this parameter is enabled, the Client enables a DBEngine parameter that causes it to go through the data extraction process for embedded data sets that cannot be tracked. When this parameter is disabled, Databridge Client ignores embedded data sets.

If INDEPENDENTTRANS is True, the Databridge Client can clone and update embedded data sets regardless of the setting of this parameter.

Read NULL record values

Parameter: read_null_records

Causes the Define/Redefine and Customize commands to get NULL VALUES for data set records from DBEngine. NULL VALUES are stored in a binary file (datasource_NullRec.dat) and are retrieved at the beginning of a process or a clone command. If this parameter is disabled, numeric data items whose bits are all 1 (high values) and character data items whose bits are all 0 (low values) are considered to be NULL. When this parameter is enabled, testing for NULL is more accurate.

MISER database

Parameter: miser_database

Enable this parameter when running Databridge at a MISER database site. When enabled, this parameter sets the default date format to a MISER date and additional parameters that are required for a MISER site (if not already set): Flatten all OCCURS; Automated virtual data sets; Allow Null dates.

Preserve DMSII MASKING option

Parameter: auto_mask_columns

Directs the SQL Server Client to use the default data masking option for all columns whose corresponding DMSII item is masked in DMSII.

AA Values and RSN's

Use the corresponding buttons to specify how to represent absolute address (AA) values, record serial numbers (RSNs) and DMSII links. RSNs are unique serial numbers that get assigned when records get created and remain associated for the life of the record. RSNs must explicitly be enabled in the DASDL.

Use Binary AA Values

Parameter: use_binary_aa

Indicates that AA values (including RSNs, visible RSNs, Parent_AA values and DMSII links) will be stored as binary data, which reduces the storage requirement. Instead of using 12 bytes, which is needed by character data, these values are stored using 6 bytes: binary(6) for SQL Server, or, raw(6) for Oracle.

Use character AA Values

Parameter: N/A (both use_binary_aa and use_decimal_aa are False)

Indicates that AA Values, Parent_AA values, RSNs, visible RSNs and DMSII links will be stored as CHAR(12), where each character is the hexadecimal representation of the corresponding digit (half-byte) in the A-Series word.

Use decimal AA Values

Parameter: use_decimal_aa

Indicates that AA values, Parent_AA values, RSNs, visible RSNs, and DMSII links will be stored using a numeric data type instead of char(12). The data type varies from database to database. For SQL Server, depending on the setting of the use_bigint parameter, either BIGINT or DECIMAL(15) is used. For Oracle, NUMBER(15) is used.