Defining Maintenance Objects

A maintenance object defines the configuration of a given “entity” in the system. It includes the definition of the tables that together capture the physical data for the entity. In addition, the maintenance object includes options that define important information related to the maintenance object that may be accessed for logic throughout the system. Several algorithm plug-in spots are also defined on the maintenance object, allowing for business rules that govern all records for this maintenance object.

Most maintenance objects are provided with the base package. An implementation can introduce custom maintenance objects when needed. Most fields may not be changed if owned by the base package.

Many maintenance objects in the system support the use of business objects to further define configuration and business rules for a given record. Refer to Maintenance Objects for more information.

You can access the portal from the Admin Menu > Database > Maintenance Object. You are brought to a query portal with options for searching for a specific maintenance object. Once a maintenance object has been selected you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.

Note: When introducing a new record, carefully consider its naming convention. Refer to System Data Naming Convention for more information.

The following zones may appear as part of the portal's Main tab page

  • Maintenance Object. This zone provides information about the selected maintenance object.
  • Tables Information. This zone displays information about the tables included in the maintenance object.

The following zone may appear as part of the portal's Relationship tab page

  • Entity Relationship Diagram. This zone describes the relatiomship of this entity to other entities in the data model.

The following zone may appear as part of the portal's Options tab page

  • Options. This zone is used to maintain various configuration options associated with the current maintenance object.
    Note: You can add new option types. Your implementation may want to add additional maintenance option types. For example, your implementation may have plug-in driven logic that would benefit from a new type of option. To do that, add your new values to the customizable lookup field MAINT_​OBJ_​OPT_​FLG.

The following zone may appear as part of the portal's Algorithms tab page

  • Algorithms. This zone is used to maintain the algorithms associated with the current maintenance object. Refer to the table that follows for a description of all possible system events. If the algorithm is implemented as a script, a link to the Script is provided. Refer to Plug-in Scripts for more information.

The following zone may appear as part of the portal's Business Objects tab page

  • Business Objects. This zone displays business objects associated with the current maintenance object.

The following zone may appear as part of the portal's References tab page

  • Maintenance Object References. This zone list various configuration entities referencing the current maintenance object.

Actions

The page supports the following special actions:

  • Create an Algorithm. Use this action, on the Algorithm tab to create a script based algorithm related to this maintenance object. You are prompted for information regarding the plug-in spot and the system event, the name, description, etc. Once all the information is provided, the system creates an algorithm type, a script, an algorithm and links the algorithm to the maintenance object. You may then navigate to the script to adjust it as needed.

  • Inactivate / Activate Base Algorithms. You can inactivate algorithms on Maintenance Objects. Your implementation may want to use a maintenance object provided by the base product, but may want to inactivate one or more algorithms provided by the base maintenance object. To do that, use the "Inactivate" action on the appropriate algorithm entry on the Algorithm tab. Use use the "Activate" action to mark an inactive algorithm as active.

    Note that these actions add and remove the "Inactive Algorithm" maintenance option as needed.