Installing your Customizations

Steps for Creating Version Revisions

Version revisions are a built-in tool for moving customizations from one Priority installation to another. Priority automatically keeps track of any modifications you make to any entity. All you need to do is group these revisions together and prepare a shell file using standard forms and programs.

1. Enter the Version Revisions form (System Management → Revisions). Record a short description of the customization in question and fill in the mandatory columns in this form. A number will be assigned to the revision automatically.

2. Enter the sub-level form, Revision Steps. A detailed list of modifications appears by code. Flag whichever modifications you wish to include in the shell file. They should all be related to the customization in question. The order in which you link these lines determines their order in the upgrade file.

   Note: The lines in the Revision Steps form are recorded in the name of the user who made the modification. This way, if you have more than one programmer, each can track his/her own changes.

3. Once you have linked all the relevant modifications, create the shell file by running the Prepare Upgrade program by Action from the Version Revisions form. The shell file will be called NN.sh (where NN is the number assigned to the revision) and stored in the system\upgrades directory.
4. If you are creating a version revision for a system in another language, see the instructions in Customizations: Installing the Language Dictionaries

Explanation of the Modification Codes

Additional Information for Specific Modification Codes

While most modification codes are recorded automatically, some need to be recorded manually.

TAKEWORDTMPL

This modification code instructs the system to take a specific word template and add it to the revision. This revision needs to be filled in manually. Fill in the following information:

• Entity (Form or Procedure) for the Word template.
• Entity Type
• Message number equal to the identifier of the template in the TRIGMSG table. Note that this will always be a negative number. Query for finding template message numbers:

  SELECT * FROM TRIGMSG
  WHERE EXEC = (SELECT EXEC FROM EXEC 
  WHERE ENAME = 'WWWSHOWORDER' AND TYPE = 'P')
  AND NUM < 0
  FORMAT;
  

TAKEHELP

This modification code takes the help for a specific entity or form column and adds it to the revision.

• Entity
• Entity Type
• Forms only - you can specify a specific column to take help for. If omitted, help for the entire form and all its columns will be taken.
  TAKEHELP for procedures, menus and reports will always take all help for the entity.

Tips for Working with Revisions

• Do not create a version revision until you have finished programming. This ensures that all revisions are numbered in the correct sequence (i.e., when multiple programmers are working in parallel).

• Complete modifications on an entity before linking to the TAKESINGLEENT line. This is because, if you create a new entity, you will find a relevant record with the TAKESINGLEENT code in the Revision Steps form. Once you link this record to the version revision, any additional modification to that entity will receive a separate record with a separate code.

  Example: You create a new form and link the relevant modification to a TAKESINGLEENT line. If you then continue to add columns to the form, you will receive additional TAKEFORMCOL lines for each new column. However, you should not wait more than a working day. When programming takes more than one day, try to prepare the upgrade at the end of each day. This way, at the end of the programming, you will not have to deal with a very large number of records in the Revision Steps form.

• There are also situations in which the order of the lines in the revision is important. Here are some examples:
  • If you create a new document, the reports included in the document must appear before the procedure itself.
  • When a procedure step includes a new form interface, the interface must be included in the revision before the procedure.
  • When you add a new column to a table and then use this column in a form, you must first flag the DBI operation and only then flag the TAKEFORMCOL line.
• Do not prepare the same upgrade twice. If a version revision needs to be modified after the upgrade has been prepared, create a new version revision with your modifications and run the Prepare Upgrade program for the new revision.

Tracking Changes to Queries

Several form and reports allow you to keep track of changes in queries appearing in form triggers, SQLI procedure steps and load definitions, once they have been included in a prepared version revision.

Note: Query changes are maintained per version revision. After making your changes, open and prepare a new version revision. If you reprepare an existing one, the previous change will not be saved, as the new query text will overwrite the old one.

To view previous versions of a column trigger, a row or form trigger, an SQLI step or a load definition:

1. Enter the relevant form (Form Column Triggers, Row & Form Triggers, Procedure Steps or Characteristics for Download, respectively) and retrieve the appropriate record.

2. Enter the Previous Versions sub-level form. This displays details of all version revisions that include the current query: the date of the revision, its number, a short description, the version number and the signature of the programmer.

   Note: Only revisions created after Priority version 17.3 is installed will appear.

3. Enter the next sub-level form, Previous Versions – Text, to view the version of the query.

To view differences between the selected version of the query and other versions:

1. Return to the Previous Versions form and select Track Changes from the list of Actions.
2. In the input screen, under Text to Compare, choose between the Current Version (the latest version in effect) and the Previous Version (the one immediately prior to the selected revision). Additions are marked in blue; deletions are marked in red strikethrough.

Installing the Revision

Caution: If your revision includes changes to tables (DBI steps), you should ensure all users exit the system before installing the revision.

To install the revision:

1. If installing in the Windows interface, open Priority as an administrator.
2. Run the System Management > Revisions > Install Upgrade program.
3. In the input, browse to the shell file you created.

Further Reading

• Customizations: Installing the Language Dictionaries