Database asset groups dependencies

When you load database assets in XML format for your store, you can choose to load only selected groups. These groups consist of the database assets, such as catalog or fulfillment. Before you load data groups as instructed in Loading database asset groups:

• Determine which database asset group you are loading. Each group contains dependencies that must be met before the assets can be loaded. Review the information in Database asset groups.
• Ensure that you create or update the XML files for the selected database asset group. When you create or update XML files, the information for a parent table must precede information for a child table.

Each database asset group draws its information from WebSphere Commerce database tables. Database assets have dependencies within their own group. That is, a database asset group cannot draw data in other XML files from a different data group, and each group is independent minus the foreign keys. However, if the database asset group needs to refer to the external data defined in another group, then you need to provide that data manually. This means that the data from one group has an external dependency on data that is defined outside of its domain, that is, on another database asset group. External dependencies occur when a database asset group has a foreign key relationship to the primary key of a table in another group. To load a database asset group, its external dependencies must be satisfied. To use an example from the following chart, one of the external dependencies for the store database asset group is fulfillment.FFMCENTER.FFMCENTER_ID, which indicates that the fulfillment database assets must exist in the WebSphere Commerce database before you can load the store database asset group.

Consider the following chart before you begin your loading process. Each group of database assets is dependent on other database tables, from which the data is loaded.

Some points to remember:

• Some external dependencies might not be satisfied by a single group. Site wide or general database assets, which are used by every store, are prepopulated at instance creation in the bootstrap and can be readily accessed. Tables that are contained in database asset groups have foreign key references to this type of data. Bootstrap data is divided into common and locale-specific data. If you have a multilingual store, you need to choose the common and the locale-specific bootstrap data. For example, you need the language and member bootstrap data. The instance creation process populates the LANGUAGE table with the supported WebSphere Commerce languages for your store and creates a root organization (MEMBER.MEMBER_ID=-2001) and a default organization (MEMBER.MEMBER_ID=-2000). You must use the root organization where required, but you should create a store owner organization instead of using the default organization.
• The files that are listed under the External dependencies column use the following naming structure: database asset group. database table. database column. Using the store.STOREENT.STOREENT_ID file as an example, the data is taken from the store database asset group, STOREENT table, and STOREENT_ID column. File names that begin with bootstrap indicate that the data was populated during the WebSphere Commerce instance creation.
• The files that are listed under the External dependencies column contain foreign key references to the Related tables. These tables must be populated first.
• For presentation purposes only, the tables are split to indicate the locale-specific tables that contain multilingual information, such as product descriptions.
• The tables in the chart represent the database assets from the WebSphere Commerce starter stores. The tables can vary according to your store's size, function, and needs. Depending on your store's requirements, ensure that you include all database tables that contain your store's assets, even if that particular table is not listed.