Technical Desk - Modifying your Commence
database
 One
of the great features of Commence is the ability to easily customise your database to suit
your own requirements and add new features. This enables you to get the full power from
your database, however there are a few important points you should keep in mind when
trying to customise your database.
Warning - Take Care!
Customising your database is not a difficult task however you should only try to do
this if you have the technical knowledge necessary and follow the correct procedures,
otherwise you could corrupt your database and loose your valuable data! If you are
not confident then you should leave this up to your system administrator or an Accredited
Commence Business Partner.
Author Rights
Another requirement is that you will need to be able to access to the Commence server
and to enable you with "Author Rights". When users (Commence clients) are
registered with the Commence server, it automatically assigns to each client, "User
Rights". This is a security precaution that allows all Commence users to be able to
read, write and edit data, open views and make local views and agents.
However to customise the database you need to have "Author Rights" so to
enable this you would:
- Go to your Commence Server
- From Customise menu select Workgroup
- Click on Next button
- Click on Next button again
- You should now see the Customise Workgroup - Permissions screen. Under Set Permissions
for: select you name from the list then click on the Edit Permissions button.
- You should now see the Edit Authorisations screen with the User Name you just selected
shown on the top left and the current User Level on the top right. From the drop down list
select Author and then click on the save button at the bottom
- Finally click Finish to complete the Commence server modifications. This will take a few
minutes before you can start customising your database because the Commence server has to
sync the changes across to your Commence client.
* Note once you have finished customising your database you will have to set your
Commence permissions back to User to prevent accidental damage to your database.
Making changes to your database
Before making any changes to your database and to ensure your data and
database are protected you will now have to:
1. Disable the syncing on your production database from your Commence
client (a production database is the database you regularly use to do your work in).
Go to your Commence client. With your production database open, from the Customise menu
select Workgroup. Click on the OK button. Note what interval is currently being used by
Commence to check the shared directory and then set the Interval to 0 seconds. Then click
OK.
2. Backup your production database From your Commence
client, go to the File menu and select Open/Manage database. You will now see a list of
all your databases displayed and your production database will probably have
"(active)" next to it. Select your database and click on the backup button.
Choose a name for the backup followed by the date (ie OurWorkingDB_070403). Save it to a
location where you will be able to conveniently retrieve it.
3. Create a test database (a test database is a copy of your
production database. You use it to test out any customisation or new features that you
want to add without affecting your production database) Go to your Commence client, from
the File menu select Open/Manage database. You will see the list of all your databases
again. This time click on the Add button and choose a name for your test database (ie
TestDatabase). Put the path somewhere on your local disk (ie C:\CommenceTestDB) and save it. The new test database
will now appear in the list of databases - Do not open it yet!
4. Restore a database. From the Open/Manage database screen, select
the test database created in step 3 and click on the Restore button. When the Open dialog
box comes up, find the backup file you made in step 2 which will have a .XFR extension and
click Open to complete the restore. You can now double click on the test database from the
list and open it.
Finally, as a precaution, check again that Customise > Workgroup has
the sync interval set to 0. This prevents your testing and changes being sent to everyone
in the workgroup at this point.
5. Re-enable the syncing on your production database. From the
Open/Manage database screen, double click on your production database to open it. From the
Customise menu select Workgroup and then click on the OK button. - replace the interval 0
with what was previously used (probably 60 seconds).
6. Open your test database for customising. From the Open/Manage
database screen, double click on your test database to open it.
When your test database is open you will notice it looks exactly like your production
database and this is because it is an exact copy. You can now do any customising you want
to in the test database without affecting any other users or your production
database. If anything goes wrong or causes strange errors simply restore the backup
database as in step 4.
If you need to do more customising at a later date you can skip step 3 because you
already have the test database set-up.
Implementing your changes
Now that you have your customisations made in your test database and you
have checked everything is working THOROUGHLY you will now want to add these features into
your production database. To do this follow these steps (same as discussed above):
1. Disable the syncing on your production database from your Commence
client - note what interval is currently used
2. Backup your production database (so have something to go back to
if anything goes wrong)
3. Customise your production database. Set up the new agents,
features and fields in your production database exactly the way you have done in your test
database.
4. Ensure the changes work in the production database as you expected.
If not restore from the backup in step 2 and start again.
5. Re-enable the syncing on your production database from your Commence
client - replace the interval 0 with what was previously used (probably 60 seconds)
* As mentioned previously, once you have finished customising your
database you will have to set your Commence permissions back to "User Rights" to
prevent accidental damage to your database.
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