Tables are the metadata that correspond to database tables where records of data are stored in the application. The relationships between tables within the application are defined using constraints.
Unless your implementation has defined custom tables, you are not required to configure tables and constraints used in archiving and purging. All of the table and constraint metadata is populated when the system is installed. The information on tables and constraints is provided as background to make the archiving and purging functions easier to understand.
Constraints are examined during an archive or purge process to ensure that referential integrity is maintained. Intra-database foreign key references are not allowed to "dangle" after any purge or after data based on non-system-generated keys is archived.
Below is an illustration of a foreign key constraint defined on the CI_BSEG_READ table. This represents one of the bill segment read detail's foreign keys that references a register reading's primary key:
