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Change DCT

praveen t n

Hi All,

I have two DCT's, DCT1 & DCT2, each having 10 dcr's. Now I want to remove DCT2 and open all the dcr's using DCT1.

What I've found out is to apply extended attributes of DCT1 to the 10 dcr's of type DCT2. Any other options/suggestion?

My doubt is do I need to copy the DCT2 dcr's to DCT1 dcr location if both are in different branches?

regards
Praveen
I hope I've asked a relevant question

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Comments

Adam Stoller

DCRs are directly associated with the DCT that lives within the same folder structure, so if you want to get rid of the DCT2 completely and make DCR2's to be DCR1's, you have to move them into the DCT1 data/ directory - and, as you noted, fix the EAs on them to reference the proper category/datatype.

However - if DCT1 and DCT2 differ - in terms of fields, paths to fields, etc. - then the above still won't work - because the fields within the DCR2's won't align with the fields defined in DCT1. This is best handled via some sort of script (Perl, XSL, whatever) to morph DCR2's to the structure of DCT1 -- and that's assuming that there is a clear mapping for such items.

If you open a "native" DCR2 against DCT1 without having restructured the contents of the DCR2 - the content of any field that is unaligned will not show up. If you then save the DCR2 at that point, any content that wasn't aligned will be removed from the DCR.

Can all this be done - sure. Is it trivial - no.

Hopefully that answers [some of] the questions of "How". The question of "Why" remains - the rationale might provide fodder for alternative methods of "How".

praveen t n

Thanks Ghoti for your help,

Business wanted to add a new item for which we have created a new DCT, ie DCT2. And we were not allowed to modify DCT1. So we have DCT1, DCR1's, DCT2 and DCR2's.

If we copy the DCR2's to DCT1 data directory and apply EA's then will the DCR2's display the new item, provided DCT1 & DCT2 are the same except for the new item?

Suppose we change DCT1, to include the new item, what will happen to the old DCR's (DCR1's)? I think it will open without displaying the new item added.

regards,
Praveen

ISCBorisB

For a moment, ignore the complications of different Branches, copying, MDs and all that, let's talk single DCT type and
corresponding DCRs. You can add new item(s) at any time. Your DC Forms will open up with the new item "empty", for the
lack of better term ("empty" will mean different things for different types like text or radio-button).

Beware! Since DCRs are already saved, new elements will be empty even if values are mandatory, have validations of any flavor
and all that. If that's the issue, you'd have to consider populating of new things, manually or by coding.

Back to copying, yes - if you copy DCRs to the corresponding Type location within different Branch and if you
provide correctly modified MDs to reflect the fact and if DCT is identical, you will be able to work with them
as "natives". Just keep in mind what I said above regarding new items, etc...

Migrateduser

Just to add my .02, you reeeeally need to stress test the corner cases of DCT2 DCRs (meaning different replicant configurations, required fields, possible node ambiguity) before you make the transition.

As Boris said, make your life easier:

1)Attempt the switch in the same branch, test all outcomes
2)Attempt to migrate DCT1 DCRs from one branch to another DCT1 folder in another branch, test all outcomes. Make sure on this step that you start by doing it the 'naive' way, just literally copying them over. Then you find out all the issues that this will cause. This way you give yourself a better chance of finding any errors with the code that will make the DCRs 'natives'.

Adam Stoller

Business wanted to add a new item for which we have created a new DCT, ie DCT2. And we were not allowed to modify DCT1. So we have DCT1, DCR1's, DCT2 and DCR2's.

If we copy the DCR2's to DCT1 data directory and apply EA's then will the DCR2's display the new item, provided DCT1 & DCT2 are the same except for the new item?

From the description above, DCR2s have a new field and DCT1 does not have that field. Therefore if you copy DCR2 to the data directory for DCT1 - and fix the EAs - and then try to edit one of those previously-DCR2's - the new field will not show up. If you then save that previous-DCR2 as a DCR of type DCT-1 - the data associated with that field, that DCT-1 doesn't know anything about - will be removed from the DCR.

If, on the other hand, you've now been granted permission to update DCT-1 so hat it is identical to DCT-2 - and go through the copying and EA setting - everything should be fine.

Note: This is assuming that the new field(s) within DCT-2 do not intrinsically alter the structure of the DCT. E.g. Adding another field within the root-container, no problem. Wrapping a previously existing field within a new container, problem. Moving a field to a different tab, problem.

Suppose we change DCT1, to include the new item, what will happen to the old DCR's (DCR1's)? I think it will open without displaying the new item added.

This is addressed above and by Boris's response.

An extra $0.02 to ehibbs' response: Create a temporary second workarea for testing all this out. As long as you don't submit anything from that workarea, you can test to your heart's content - and if you find problem, just revert the changes and start over again (or remove the workarea, create a new one and start over again). This is particularly useful if you plan to script any conversion processes.

Once you believe you have something working, you should be able to submit the new DCRs [previously DCR-2's] and/or the modified DCT-1, remove the temporary workarea, do a Get Latest in the original workarea(s) and you should be good to go.