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System Columns

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System columns have a value of System in their Type property. System columns appear in all tables in Siebel applications, although the same set of system columns does not appear in every table. You can use the data in system columns for various purposes; for example, the ROW_ID column in tables is used in the construction of joins. Generally you should not modify the data in system columns. However, there are exceptions, such as certain system columns in interface tables. Some common system columns are described below:

ROW_ID. The ROW_ID column is present in all tables and provides a unique identifier to the rows in the table. It is the typical destination column of foreign key relationships from other tables. In standard data tables, it is often represented by a field called Id for use in joins and links. For example, the ROW_ID column in the S_ORG_EXT table is represented as the Id field in the Account business component.

NOTE:  The Id field that represents the ROW_ID column in business components is an implied field, and does not appear in the Object Explorer as a child field of any business components. However, every business component has an Id field, which represents the ROW_ID column of its base table, as defined in the Table property of the business component. The Id field is referenced in various property settings throughout Siebel applications, such as in the Source Field property of a link (in which a blank value also means the Id field).

The format of the ROW_ID is one of the following:

CP-NS For records created by the Siebel Sales Enterprise user interface

XX-XX-XXX For records created by Interface Manager

where:

CP = Corporate Prefix, up to 2 alphanumeric characters

NP = Next Prefix, up to 6 alphanumeric characters

NS = Next Suffix, up to 7 alphanumeric characters

Total maximum 15 alphanumeric characters.

NOTE:  Do not alter the ROW_ID column. It is unique throughout the database with the exception of when there is an extension table for the base table. In such cases, the ROW_ID column in the extension table is a duplicate of the corresponding ROW_ID column in the base table.

CREATED. Provides the creation date and time of each record.
CREATED_BY. Stores the ROW_ID of the S_USER record of the person who created the record—not to be confused with the user name that the user logged in with.
LAST_UPD. Provides the date of last update of each record.
LAST_UPD_BY. Stores the ROW_ID of the S_USER record of the person who last updated the record—not to be confused with the user name that the user logged in with.

NOTE:  The CREATED, CREATED_BY, LAST_UPD, and LAST_UPD_BY columns all provide date-time and logon stamps for record creation and update on the client, not server, databases.

PAR_ROW_ID. The PAR_ROW_ID column is a foreign key to the ROW_ID column of the base table. Extension tables, as well as _ATT and _T tables, have this system column.

LAST_UPD, ROW_ID, LAST_UPD_BY, CREATED, and CREATED_BY columns are system fields that are updated automatically by the Siebel application.

System fields should not be explicitly defined for a business component. If the business component fields that are based on these columns are defined, the application will attempt to write a value to these columns twice in the insert statement and will cause a duplicate column SQL error.

Updating the extension table does not update the base table automatically. This needs to be configured. One method is to add an extension column to the base table, which would be populated using SVB code whenever an extension table was updated.

Table 14 identifies the correspondences between system fields and system columns.

Table 14. System Fields and Their System Columns

System Field Name	System Column Name	Description
Id (or blank)	ROW_ID	Primary key for the table.
Created	CREATED	Creation date and time of the row.
Created By	CREATED_BY	Stores the ROW_ID of the S_USER record of the person who last updated the record.
Updated	LAST_UPD	Date of last update of the row.
Updated By	LAST_UPD_BY	Stores the ROW_ID of the S_USER record of the person who last updated the record. In some cases, this field is updated even though the user does not actively update the record. For example, this may occur when a multi-value link is configured with a primary join. See Multi-Value Links and the CheckNoMatch Property for more information.

These fields are automatically provided, and do not need to be explicitly declared. You can reference them in the Field property of controls, list columns and other object definitions, even though they do not display in the Object List Editor for the business component.

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