Using the Database Screen
The Database screen shows the system administrator what this version of ABM Service recommends for your company's database, lets you apply it when the office is quiet, and records what has been applied. Open the menu and, under Administration, select Database. Only ABM user number 1 has this screen.
What is the Database screen for?
The Database screen in ABM Service is where the system administrator applies the database changes this version recommends, which make busy screens faster. Open it from the menu: under Administration, select Database.
Each recommended change is an index: a sorted list the database keeps beside one of its large tables, like the index at the back of a book, so it can find the rows a screen asks for without reading the whole table. Every change on this screen is about speed only. An index changes no data, no call, customer or setting, and no screen shows anything different because one is there; without it, the same screen shows the same answer more slowly.
ABM Service asks you, rather than doing it by itself, because building an index locks its table for a short time while it is made, usually a few seconds. People working at that moment could be held up, so the choice of when is yours.
The Database screen does not back up or restore your database, and nor does anything else in ABM Service: whoever looks after SQL Server at your company makes backups. Applying a change needs no backup first, because an index holds nothing not already in its table.
The list is the same for every site. The changes currently recommended speed up the Calls list (when it opens and as you scroll, and the engineers shown on each row), customer search by address and by Eircode (the Irish postcode), a customer's screen with their recent calls, and looking at calls by due date on the Calls list and the Scheduler. The list does not vary by country, so a site outside Ireland is offered the Eircode index too: only an Irish site's customer search uses it, and elsewhere it is a small index nothing reads, costing next to nothing, so applying it is harmless.
Each waiting change on the Database screen is one line that starts with what it does: Add a missing index, Repair one that somebody has changed since it was added, or Remove one this version no longer uses. An Add or Repair line then says what the index speeds up; a Remove line says No longer used by this version, and is optional: it is applied only if you tick Remove it too beside it. Nothing changes in the database until you press Apply.
What does the top of the Database screen tell me?
The top of the Database screen, under the heading Database and the line Recommended changes for your company's database, says in large type how many changes are waiting.
- Nothing to apply with Every index this version recommends is already in this database. means there is nothing to do.
- A count such as 3 changes to apply means the database is missing something this version recommends. The sentence under it names the version and says Nothing changes until you press Apply. Below that is one line per change and the Apply button.
When nothing is waiting, the sentence under Nothing to apply sometimes adds that one index, or a number of them, that this version no longer uses can be removed, if you like. Those removals are optional and are never counted as changes to apply; they are listed as Remove lines, each with a Remove it too tick box.
While the screen is reading your database you see Reading what this database has…. If it cannot be read, the reason is shown in its place.
The line under the heading names the company. On a site with two ABM companies, each company's database has its own changes, banner and History on its own Database screen, and applying changes in one leaves the other company's database as it was.
What are Already in the database and History?
Already in the database and History are two sections folded away under the recommended changes on the Database screen. Select either one to open it and again to fold it.
- Already in the database lists every recommended index your database already has, each as Speeds up followed by what it speeds up, marked In place. Its note says how many there are, followed by nothing to do. When none are there yet it says None of the recommended indexes is in this database yet.
- History is a table of every change applied or attempted from this screen, newest first, showing the latest 100, with the columns When, Index, What, Took and By. What is Created, Rebuilt, Dropped or Failed; a change that was not made is kept here as Failed, with the reason in small print under the index. By names the ABM user by number, the computer it was done from, and the version of ABM Service. Before anything has been applied the note says nothing has been applied here yet. The history is on screen only: the Database screen has no button to export, download or print it.
Under each line, in small print, is the index's technical name and the table it is on. You do not need them; they are there for your software supplier's support team if they ever ask.
What does the line about ABM Service's own tables mean?
The last line on the Database screen is about the small tables ABM Service keeps for itself in your company's database, for things such as sign-in settings and this screen's history. It says which version those tables are on, marked Up to date (in the rare case they are behind what this version needs, it is marked Behind instead and names the version needed), and that They update themselves when a new version is first used, with when and from which computer that last happened.
There is never anything for you to do about them. When a new version of ABM Service needs them changed, the first person to use it brings them up to date automatically. Screens wait up to five seconds for that before showing anything, so most people never notice it. If that cannot happen, nobody can use any screen until it does: everybody sees The database is being updated instead, the Database screen included.
What does Check again do on the Database screen?
Check again, at the top right of the Database screen, reads your database again and redraws the screen from what it finds now. Use it when somebody else may have changed the database since you opened the page, for example after your software supplier's support team has worked on it, or to clear the results of the last run of changes and see the list fresh.
Check again is greyed out while changes are being applied.
You do not need it after applying changes: when a run of changes ends, the Database screen reads the database again by itself, and the banner on other screens is updated at the same time. The results of the run stay on the screen, each line with its outcome, until you select Check again or leave the screen, so you can read what happened first. Selecting Check again changes nothing in the database; it only looks.