Migrating Forms from Entry to MagicData

This tutorial will explain how to migrate forms from previous versions that were stored in the entry table and move them to magic data storage as well as update any mapped fields that referenced the values.

Step 1: Change a Form's Storage Mechanism

In iHRIS 4.0, storage mechanisms were added to forms. The default storage method is to use the entry tables as in previous versions of iHRIS. For distributed systems you may want to have some forms be stored in magic data so they can be managed centrally more easily and can be updated by module updates to keep consistent IDs across all the distributed systems.

First we need to change the storage for the form to magic data in the module configuration file. For earlier versions this section needs to be added. If you're migrating a form that already has storage defined, you just need to change the storage to be magic data. These changes will be under the "forms" section of your configuration at the path: /modules/forms/forms/<form_name>. This just includes the new storage section. The class and display sections should already be there for this form. You'll also need to update the version for this module and include that same version number in the storage section.

<source lang="xml"> <configurationGroup name="forms" path="/modules/forms">

 <configurationGroup name="forms">
   <configurationGroup name="form_XXXXX">
     <configuration name="storage" values="single">
       <displayName>Storage Mechanism</displayName>
       <description>The storage mechanism for this form.</description>
       <version>X.X.X</version>
       <value>magicdata</value>
     </configuration>
   </configurationGroup>
 </configurationGroup>

</configurationGroup> </source>