Hello Bryan,
Well, you've had the advisory feedback on the hazards of using SQL to directly update XA databases, and they are all absolutely correct (Kevin and Michael are excellent resources for this thread). And you really should look very, very hard at upgrading to the latest level. That's far and away the best option - R9 capabilities and the price/performance levels on the new POWER systems are beyond belief based on the old V5.5 days.
But as we all know, that's not always decided at the technical level. So here's some advice for you at your level from someone that was stuck at a lower level of XA for far too long....
1. Look very hard at using the V5.5 Off-line loads for mass updates. That's an assured safe way of doing it (after all, it's the "official MAPICS way"), and it's not very difficult to do. It's not just for initial loads, but can be used for maintenance also. Data can easily be maintained in Excel or Access and uploaded if desired (I can help you with that if you wish), or can be created on the AS/400 outside of XA. The biggest drawback is that a lot of the offline loads require a dedicated XA environment to run (or at least there many, many conflicts). You can run a pre-edit check to make sure all your updates are correct. You own it, it's guaranteed safe, and while it can be a little awkward, it works.
2. You can use SQL or other direct updates (I did it many times over the years) but you have to be EXTREMELY cautious, and you should only use it on non-related fields, as in on fields that don't tie out to other fields or files. Things like item class, item description, user-defined fields, etc. are OK (usually) but not always. Otherwise, as Kevin and Michael put so well, you run the risk of seriously corrupting the databases. Some can be recovered, some will seriously hose you. As I said earlier, I did it a lot, but you have to be really careful. Actually, I frequently updated lead times as you did (using calculated values based on actual vs. expected delivery times), but I did a lot of research up front to make sure I updated all the related fields correctly, and tested it thoroughly in my test environment first. There's a lot of excellent information available in the manuals and on Infor's web site on how some of the values are
calculated, with actual field names.
3. Or (of course) you could ask your affiliate for assistance. Odds are that they have already helped someone else with similar things over time and they could save you some grief. And they might be able to help you convince your management that you really should upgrade.
Dale (Cork) Gindlesperger, CPIM
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________________________________
From: Bryan Burns <bryanburns599@xxxxxxxxx>
To: mapics-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 9:02 AM
Subject: [MAPICS-L] LTPUR not recalculated after changing ITEMBL with SQL
In an XA5.5 test environment, I updated LTVEN and LTSAF using SQL; but
LTPUR has not been re-calculated for those items I updated.
I went into ITEMBL file maintenace on a record and I was able to get it
re-calculated that way.
Two questions:
1. This was my first accomplishment using SQL to do an update and I'd like
to know if I did any damage, and what other file/fields can be damaged with
even the most careful use of SQL?
2. How can I automagically get the LTPUR recalculated for about 130 records?
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