Aggregate Summaries

Archiving or purging records from a production data table could affect balances and quantities that are calculated from details. There are various ways to handle these situations, and each situation must be treated individually.

There are very few cases where calculated or stored aggregate summaries exist in the system. The sample archive procedures deal with the most complex instances of aggregate summaries that exist in the system, which are those that deal with financial data.

There are different ways of dealing with aggregate summaries, and they may be used in combination:

• Add a detail record that is representative of a summary of archived or purged detail records.
• Use criteria algorithms to ensure that the removed detail records do not affect normal system operation. For example, if you archive credit rating history, only archive expired credit rating details so that the overall credit rating and cash-only point balances remain the same after an archive or purge.
• Change system functionality to alert users when an aggregate summary has been altered due to a purge or archive. Note that this option should not be necessary.