Content Manager EE external table

Foreign keys are defined by using the system administration client of Content Manager EE.

Consider a scenario where you want to create a table for a list of countries. You want to create that table in a database and not in a separate properties file. You can create that table in the same database as the Content Manager EE with a column that contains the list of countries. Then, you define a foreign key from a document attribute that is called country to an external table that contains a list of countries. The list of countries is used to provide valid values for your document attribute.

An external table is a table that is not an item type or a Content Manager EE server tables. The foreign key points to an external table within the same database schema as item types. You cannot configure an external table in another database schema or a different database. If your choice list values are stored in another database or schema, you must import them into an external table within the same database schema. Alternatively, you can import them into an internal table, or into the properties file to create a properties file based choice lists.

The choice list is populated from data in a table column that you identify in an external table for the item type and column that the foreign key points to. The external table choice list validation is enforced by the Content Manager EE repository. However, the support of the foreign key drop-down lists varies by application. You enable the drop-down list by selecting the Show target data as dropdown in client check box in Content Manager EE system administration client.

IBM ECM CMIS retrieves the list of values from the foreign key definition that provides the table name and the column name. However, the database user must have the necessary database access to run a query to read from the external table, column, and rows because the read operation requires database access. Content Manager EE connects to the database directly if the Content Manager EE user is also a database user. Otherwise, Content Manager EE connects to the database by using a proxy database user, ICMCONCT. For non-administrators, it is a common practice to use ICMCONCT proxy database user for all connections. However, administrator users, such as icmadmin, connect to the database by using their own credentials. Some administrators restrict access to the ICMCONCT user or database users. If you cannot enable access to your users, do not use external tables for drop-down lists.