Property management guidelines

You can consult the following guidelines when working with property management.

  • It is recommended that you use the property management user interface in the System Administration Console to set and override properties.
  • If database property management is enabled and properties are loaded to the database the IBM® Sterling Order Management System application returns the value set in the database for a property. Even if customer_overrides.properties exists in system, the application continues to return the Factory value until the overrides are imported to the database. Therefore, you must import your property overrides specified in customer_overrides.properties to the database to attain the expected behavior.
  • The customer_overrides.properties file approach continues to be supported and as mentioned earlier, the factory value can be overridden by importing customer_overrides.properties. After the import, it is recommended to use System Administration Console for further overrides. However, the properties which are not present in the database can continue to be managed in files.
  • The import mode always overwrites the property value in the database with the value set in the customer_overrides.properties file, which means that the values set in the System Administration Console might be lost if import process is run again. Therefore, it is recommended that you remove the property from the customer_overrides.properties file when you start using the System Administration Console for managing that property.
  • If a property you use in the customer_overrides.properties file is not found in the default files or database, it cannot be managed from the user interface or modified using import mode. You must either retain it in the customer_overrides.properties file or insert it into the database using the Create Property user interface in the System Administration Console, along with the proper metadata.
  • If you want to use a property, first search for it in the property management user interface in the System Administration Console. If the property is listed, then set and override it from the user interface. If not, you can either include it in the customer_overrides.properties file or insert it into the database using the Create Property user interface in the System Administration Console, along with the proper metadata.
  • The CUSTOM properties used in the customization logic can also be inserted into the database by using the Create Property user interface in the System Administration Console. These properties are first searched in the database and then in the files.
  • The override flags in the property metadata indicates whether a property has been overridden for a server or user.
  • If a property has a common value across environments, then it is recommended to create the property in the database from the System Administration Console. You would have the benefit of managing it in the database and also deploying it to other environments by using CDT. But if a property has different values for different environments, then it is recommended to retain the property in the customer_overrides.properties file. It can be better managed in your source code repository and then be brought into the cloud by using the environment specific customization package.
  • If you want to encrypt properties that relay sensitive data such as user IDs and passwords, create a custom implementation class that implements the YCPEncrypter interface. For more information, see Encryption through property files.
  • The property value must match the following regular expression:
    ^[a-zA-Z0-9.@\-\/+=_() \}\{\]\[,:'" \u007F-\uFFFF]*$
    Therefore, if you have properties that can take characters except for this pattern, for example, a password property, it is recommended to keep them in the customer_overrides.properties file.