Distributing from both the database and an external source

In some deployments, you might want to maintain a table outside the database and yet keep other tables and all of the XML descriptors inside the database. The reason for this setup might be due to the large size of a certain table or because you are using an external or an existing process to build the table.

For example, say that an account table comes from an external source and the data descriptor for it is in the database. The Business Rules distribution process supports this configuration when you follow the proper procedure. You must copy the external table into the source directory before activation is done.

To set up this configuration, do not set the view name field on the data descriptor user interface page. Not setting this field results in the <viewName> element in the data descriptor XML being empty. This empty element causes Business Rules Manager to search the source directory for the corresponding table file.

The following XML is an example of a data descriptor that was created with an empty <viewName> element:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<dataDescriptor name="MyAccountTable" type="TABLE">
  <viewName/>
  <fileName>MyAccounts.tbl</fileName>
  <record>
    <field datatype="char" length="20" name="MyAccount"        type="key"/>
    <field datatype="byte" length="2"  name="ibmNprRecordType" type="payload"/>
    <field datatype="byte" length="2"  name="ibmNprRecordId"   type="payload"/>
    <field datatype="char" length="1"  name="ibmNprOnUsFlag"   type="payload"/>
    <field datatype="char" length="1"  name="ibmNprCredit"     type="payload"/>
  </record>
</dataDescriptor>

When this data descriptor is processed, the Business Rules Manager searches the source directory for the table file that is called MyAccounts.tbl. If the file is found, it is validated. If it is not found or if the table fails validation, the activation process stops and the user interface displays the appropriate error message.

For more information about using the data descriptor user interface page, see Managing Data Descriptors.