Greetings All,
I manually created three tables using the Cloud Database tool. I specified the primary key, foreign keys and populated the tables with data.
I then created an application. I created Data Types, Data Stores and Records. I then created an grid interfaces and I was able to see my data.
After some thoughts about how I named the application and if I should have select 'From Scratch', I DELETED the application.
I then created a new application and started to create a Data Type (or is it Custom Data Type) to connect to the existing physical tables I previously used.
I then discovered that my tables (along with the data) are now gone.
I am guessing I did something wrong. If I had five applications using the same tables, it would seem counterproductive to have all of the physical tables being deleted because I deleted one application that refers to them.
Thanks for any help and advice!!
Best, Paul
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Hi paulp0005,
As far as I know, Appian never touches the objects inside the application neither any database-related objects, if we delete the application. Could you please explain the exact steps that you followed?
Thanks for asking selvakumark. I would have taken screenshots if I thought my tables might go away. I think, really, I just deleted the application that had CDT connected to the tables.
Frankly, I am trying to rethink the whole 'my tables' thing. It seems like the possibly better way to go is to just have Appian manage your tables so you know who updated what and when (which my tables did not take into consideration). Still trying to wrap my brain around this new paradigm.
I try to leave schema management to Appian as much as possible. Extra stuff like views, triggers, stored procedures are separate and must be managed by you.
When creating views, keep in mind that Appian will try to create a table for them at deployment time. Add a "drop table" statement ahead of the "create view" in your DDL scripts.
If you are used to do a lot of DB stuff, then this feels odd at first.
Keep in mind that not only should Appian not delete tables, your existing CDTs should also still exist (but not in any application). An application is just a container that facilitates deployments, but the underlying objects should still exist in the application.
If you go to the Objects view from the main page in the Appian Designer and search for your existing CDTs, do you see them there?
Thank you, Peter Lewis!!
Your suggestions led me on a rather odd journey through the 'old' application objects and confirmed that my data was still there.
Further, it led me to the embarrassing conclusion that I merely had to click to the next page to find my tables.
Previously, my tables were on the 1st page. Then I created a new application which pushed my tables to the second page. I think I am so used to using Windows tools for managing tables that I never really saw the 'page forward feature'.
I apologize for wasting your time and that of Stefan and selvakumark.
And thank you for your help!!
Paul
Interesting journey ;-)
One important great feature of Appian is that the platform itself will never delete or destroy any database objects. Sometimes this can be a bit annoying when I e.g. need to change the type of a field. But in the end it forces me to think about a migration plan before doing the change. While in DEV it means to simply modify the schema manually or drop and recreate.