Thad, Yes, the Association feature is a major new feature. And, the 9.0 release has introduced the basics and the possibilities and leverage of the feature are just getting started.
The 9.0 release uses the Association feature in two major ways: 1) To delete child records when the required parent record is deleted. So, if you have a master record and then have other forms with additional details, the association will automatically delete the children when the parent is deleted. Associations have a configuration for whether they enforce this flow or not. 2) For archiving. So, archiving the parent, takes all the children with it automatically. Now, the base feature is about defining the relationships and interconnections of forms – directly and through association tables. You can follow the associations for any number of reasons. Think about some other things: Producing an diagram of the relationship of forms to form an application is now a simple matter of following relationships AND you know whether the association is a dependent relationship or not. What if DSO could be configured to “follow associations” so that transferring the parent record would transfer all children records too? What if we could configure the system to have row level security flow to children from the parent so any change to a row level security field on the parent flows that change to all children records as well? What if you could define table fields to just “follow the association” rather than having to define the target form and qualifications on it? What if you could export data by just specifying the parent record and all children record are exported along with it (or imported..). What if… There is a lot more that this feature can do and will allow. Working with applications that involve collections of forms with inter-dependent or just inter-related data will be much easier and will be able to be done in a more global, consistent, and systematic way rather than custom logic for each set of interaction. As an aside, there is also much more that is possible with archiving now that this is in place and you should see some very cool new features related to archive still to come in releases post 9.0. I am glad that you are seeing some of the possibilities that this feature opens up within the system – some available already (archiving and delete) and others to come. There are additional features – both with 9.0 and some coming beyond that will also provide basic capability that can then be leveraged in many different ways. (One of my favorites by the way is the dev-to-production or packaging or deployment manager – whatever name they settled on – feature. It has a lot of value in 9.0 and there is much more coming that will help transform how promotion of change is done within the environment.) As always, we would love to hear what you are doing with the features, how you are leveraging them beyond the defined uses. And, what is missing from them that would make the functionality even more powerful. Doug Mueller From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thad Esser Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 9:38 AM To: [email protected] Subject: ARS v9.0 - New Server Object - Associations ** Has anyone else taken a look at the new "Association" server object for version 9.0? I've only read the docs (haven't played with it yet), but this seem like a huge new feature, with possibilities way beyond just archiving (which is what the docs say its being used for). https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ars9000/Associations+overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4v0X2SimKY Just curious what others thought, or if I'm nerd-ing out too much. Thad _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
