I have a task form which has many data sections that users can update. Each section on the task form refers to a CDT and a table. In one of the sections, I have a column of type Number(Integer) int(11). Due to a new business requirement, I have to change the column to decimal(19,2). In order to achieve this, a new version of this CDT should be created by modifying the int(11) column to decimal(19,2). But there are hundreds of instances in production where this task form is still open.
If the CDT is updated, only future instances of this task would be able to support decimal(19,2). All the old instances would only be able to support int(11). But we want this fix to be applied for both the old and new instances.
As a work around, Instead of updating the section directly on the task, I have created a link using a!recordActionField() where I am showing the same section on a pop-up from the task form. Users will be able to update this section from the pop-up which runs off the latest version of the CDT because it triggers a new instance asynchronous process instance.
Apart from this workaround, Is there a way to update all the old instances of a process model to use the latest version of the CDT?
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As far as I know we do not have a mechanism to update the CDT type of running instances. The 2 related functions that come to mind for updating running process instances are Appian Process Upgrade, and the IFM Manager plugin. However, both note that they will not modify CDT types.
For similar situations in the past we have done things such as, create a new field with the new decimal type, and add a trigger on the DB table to udpate for older versions, then all reporting can reference the new field only.
Thanks for the response. Based on your suggestion, it looks like users will not be able to update the value of this changed field on the in-flight instances. Is that correct?
That is correct, the in-flight process instances will continue to use the CDT type as it was at start time.