You can use the Relativity Designer to update the file definitions already in a Relativity catalog. If the COBOL data file definitions have changed in the COBOL source since they were imported into the catalog, you should update the catalog definitions in order to maintain an accurate reflection of the data.
The process requires you to firstly re-import the FD from the updated source. This does not destroy or modify the definition existing in the Relativity catalog: a backed-up version of the file definitions and tables are taken - appending 'Previous' to the existing FDs, and appending 'OLD' to the table definitions.
The second part of the process is to use the merge editor to determine the actions required for any differences found between the original and updated FDs. Many items may be automatically matched, but you may need to match some manually. Once all the items are matched, new table definitions are created from the original FD's table using the matched FD items.
You may abort the update by closing the merge editor, and by deleting the new file definition and its associated table definitions from the Catalog Explorer.
Once the new table definitions have been created (and inspected), you can delete the original file definition and its associated table definitions from the Catalog Explorer. Alternatively, you can keep the previous file definition and tables, but in order to update the file definition again, these previous entries must be removed.