Have You Outgrown Your Environment? Four Steps to Free Your Data.

ProjectWise now allows you to add new attributes and to delete old ones from an Environment; But what about the attribute that is now too small or the wrong data type? Are you stuck with the past?

This blog is going to show you how to replace one field in your environment with another using the ProjectWise Administrator and Explorer GUI, ensuring that you won’t break your database by making changes directly in SQL or Oracle. (Which by the way you should NEVER do!) You can use this process on an existing database any time you need to change an attribute’s width or change from numeric or date data types after the database has been in production.

This is an example of changing the size (Chars) of an Attribute. The first step is to create the new attribute in the environment that will replace the old one. The create a second attribute that will trigger the new attribute to update its value to that of the old attribute. The second step is to make the change to the new attribute. Third step is to replace the orginal attribute with the new one in interfaces and views. Fourth step once your are comfortable that the data is sound is to delete the onl attribute and the change attribute.

Step 1 In ProjectWise Administrator:

1. Add a new attribute you can call it whatever you like. I usually give it the name of the attribute it is replacing with a rev number. (For example: Too_Small_1 replaces Too_Small)
2. Add an additional attribute. I call this one Change.
3. In the new attribute Too_Small_1 edit the Properties and change the Update value to $EDIT#Too_Small$
4.  Change the Update field setting to "Specific Attributes are updated"
5.  Set the triggering attribute to the new attribute “Change”

This creates the new attribute that will replace the old one and an attribute to trigger the data copy.

Step 2 In the ProjectWise Explorer:

1. Search for all of the files in the environment that you are modifying.
2. Select them all (Ctrl-A)
3. Open Modify from the Right Click Menu
4. Select the checkbox by the Change Attribute
5. Enter a new value
6. Select OK to apply the change and close the dialog.

After the dialog closes all of the data from the old attribute will be copied into the new attribute for every document selected.

Step 3 In ProjectWise Administrator

1. Open the Properties dialog for the new attribute (Too_Small_1)
2. Remove the Update value
3. Modify the properties to match those set in the old attribute (Too_Small)
4. Replace the Old Attribute (Too_Small) with the new attribute (Too_Small_1) in any attributes, interfaces or views where the old attribute was used.

Step 4 Once you verify that the replacement is successful you can delete the old attribute (Too_Small) and the change attribute.