Database configuration content

Migration objects

A migration object is a group of one or more related business objects that represent database tables. One or more migration objects make up a migration group.

Your database might contain hundreds or thousands of business objects. Many of the business objects are related and are organized into object structures. An object structure therefore facilitates the migration of related data and is called a migration object.

Migration objects exist for many types of records, such as cron tasks, integration channels, security groups, and user interface presentations.

For example, the Workflow Process (DMWFPROCESS) migration object contains 16 business objects that enable the migration of workflow processes, nodes, and notification records that the Workflow Designer application manages.

You can use the predefined migration objects in the migration process or you can use the Object Structures application to create custom migration objects. You define migration objects in a development instance and then move them into test and production environments.

Migration groups

A migration group is a set of related migration objects. When you include a migration group in a package definition, all migration objects in the migration group are migrated. All other migration groups that the migration group depends on are also migrated.

Many applications provide complex features that must be represented by multiple migration objects. The migration groups organize the migration objects and their dependencies to simplify the migration process.

For example, a workflow process defines the process flow, the roles that act on the process, the actions that are run during the process flow, and the notifications (communication templates) that are generated as a result of the process flow. These roles, actions, and communication templates also have their own separate configuration applications. Depending on the nature of your configurations, the DMWFPROCESS migration object might depend on the DMACTION, DMROLE, and DMCOMMTEMPLATE migration objects. To organize these complex relationships, the Business Process Management (BPM) migration group is provided to order all of the migration objects that are used to migrate workflow and related data.

The ordering of the migration objects within a migration group is critical because of data dependencies. For example, the configuration data for a communication template (represented by the DMCOMMTEMPLATE) must be processed before the workflow process (DMWFPROCESS) that refers to the communication template. The migration group specifies an order to ensure that migration of the configuration content succeeds.

A migration group can be internal or user-defined. The predefined migration groups are internal. They are linked to other logically related migration groups by dependencies. A dependency ensures that all dependent configuration content is included in a migration. You cannot modify an internal migration group, but you can copy one and modify the copy.

User-defined migration groups are migration groups that you create, including copies of internal migration groups. When you create or modify migration groups, you must include all the necessary migration objects so that you maintain the referential integrity of the database.