Rules File for Merging a Catalog

When distributing updated catalogs, there must be an accompanying rules file for the merge process. The rules file is an INI format file having the name RELDBUTL.INI. It can contain sections for changed file and table definition names. The minimum entries in the rules file are the names of the two data sources to merge. The format for entries is the following:

PARAMETER=value

[CATALOG] section specifies the data source names as well as the user IDs and passwords that are to be merged. The parameters are:

OLD: The customer's existing data source.
OLDUID: The customer's existing user ID.
OLDPWD: The customer's existing password.
NEW: The updated catalog's new data source.
NEWUID: The customer's new user ID.
NEWPWD: The customer's new password.

[FD] section provides a method of explaining file definition name changes. There should be an entry in this section for every FD name that has changed. The format is oldname=newname. There is no need to list unchanged file definitions; they are merged automatically.

[TABLE] section provides a method of explaining table name changes. There should be an entry in this section for every table name that has changed. The format is oldname=newname. There is no need to list unchanged table names as they are merged automatically.

[COLUMNS] section provides a method of explaining column name changes. There should be an entry in this section for every column name that has changed. The format of this section header is the keyword COLUMNS followed by a colon followed by the old name of the table. The format of the entries in the section is oldcolumn=newcolumn.

[CONNECT] section, which is optional, allows the new data source to be created as part of the merge process. The parameters are:

DESC: Can be any text that describes the data source.
CATALOG: The full access path to where the catalog will be located.
DSN: Data Source Name. This is the ODBC data source name for the new catalog.
DRIVER: The Relativity DBMS used for the new catalog.

[MESSAGES] section, which is optional, is provided to allow the Relativity Merge Utility to change the messages displayed on the screen as the merge is taking place. You may choose to provide any of these messages; you do not have to provide all. If a message is not found, the default will be used. The sample rules file (see link below) uses the defaults. The valid messages and when they are displayed are:

LOGON1: The message displayed while the Logon dialog box for the user's existing catalog is displayed.
LOGON2: The message displayed while the Logon dialog box for the new catalog is displayed. (One use for this may be to provide a new user ID and password if the DBA has changed.)
STATUS: The message displayed while the actual merge is running.
COMPLETE: The message displayed following a successful merge. (One use for this message may be to remind the user to remove any media, or to run the next step in a process.)
INCOMPLETE: The message displayed following an aborted merge process. (One use for this message may be how to proceed if errors were encountered during the merge.)
LOG: Creates a log file at the end of the merge process. The only entry in the log file is a complete or incomplete message. If you have specified COMPLETE and INCOMPLETE messages, those will be used. If not, the default for these messages will be used.

Here are the default messages that will be used if none are provided:

LOGON1: Please log on to your existing catalog.
LOGON2: Please log on to new catalog.
STATUS: This process may take some time.
COMPLETE: Relativity Merge Complete.
INCOMPLETE: Relativity Merge NOT Complete.