Modify data types functionality System admin module

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Posted on by Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee

Hi,

I would like to extend the Project ID via the "modify data types" functionality in the system admin module (System admin- Setup - System - modify data types).

The Project ID has not been used before and we want to extend the field by 6 digits.

The first question is whether this can have any negative side effects if the Project ID and Project module has not been used before.

The second question is where - on which layer - the Extension is tracked?

Would be great if somebody could help.

Thanks,

Ludwig

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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Hi Ludwig Reinhard,

It will modify EDT on a layer you are currently using. So if client is opened on USR layer all changes would be done on USR layer as well.

Also please note that not only project id would be changed but also all EDT derived from project id parent EDT. ProjIdBase is a parent EDT for projId so all EDT derived from projIdBase would be changed.

I'm not aware of any negative effects but it is worth to check cross references before doing this :)

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Sohaib Cheema 49,438 User Group Leader on at

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Hi Ludwig,

The first question is whether this can have any negative side effects if the Project ID and Project module has not been used before.

The default length is 20. If you are making it 6, that’s seems to create issues, if this EDT is combining in any views with other EDT(s). If you are thinking to make it 26, in that case also you may face issue during synchronization, if ProjId is combined somewhere in any of views, which are dependent on more than one table or views which are based on Union queries.

But, good news is you don’t need to worry much about any issues. Take a backup of DB before doing change. After taking backup of DB, modify EDT length and synchronized Full DB. Full DB Synchronization will tell you name of all those views or tables that might be impacted because of your change and you can review those message/warning and accordingly you can take action.

A very common example is increasing length of Name (EDT) in system. But doing so, often raises warning and errors, because Name (EDT) combines with DirpartyName (EDT) in many views. So, as we increase/decrease length of Name EDT, it is recommended to increase/decrease length of DirpartyName also. An example of such issue can be seen in one of my old posts.

It is possible to detect all those locations also where a certain EDT is being used in x++ code, but it can be hell of work to find all those references in code and then to resolve/review each of them.

Summarizing it I can say that it can impact at two locations usually

At views

In case a certain EDT is being used in a view, it may bring issues during synchronization; a very common example is views which are using union queries. Synchronizing DB will give a list of all such views, which you can fix manually.

At code

If you don’t want to spend too much time now, you can leave it for now. As time will pass, users may refer you back for any issues, you can fix those. There are very few references usually where two EDT(s) combine in code.

The second question is where - on which layer - the Extension is tracked?

It will go in current model, which you can see by enabling from user options.

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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Thank you ievgen and Sohaib!

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