 Purge &
Archive Data
Files
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Many
customers ask -- I have years and
years of data I want to keep but
don't really look at it anymore. How
do I delete the data but keep it,
just in case? Should I print
reports? Can I keep the data by
year?
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Purging data can be
a scary endeavor but Down To Earth
makes it easy to be confident. With
most any DTE history purge, you have
the option to save deleted records.
That way the records purged are
stored separatly if you ever need to
restore them to the
files.
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| Below are a couple of pointers
to organize your system so you have access to
historical reports and data when you need it,
all the while keeping your data files smaller
and more efficient. |
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Step 1: Make a
storage folder/directory on your
system
Create a new
directory/folder on your system to
store the report and archived data
files ... something like
…\dtev70\archive
.
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Step 2: Create a report
of the data being
purged
As
with any purge, you should print the
data being purged either to a Text
file and/or paper before the purge is
run.
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For example, if purging
Accounts Payable history,
select “History by vendor” and
optionally the “History by
check” reports. (Enter the
report date range to be the
same date range that will be
purged.)
Printing a
report to your system for each
data file being purged is recommended
for easier access. To do this, select
“Text file” when the Print Option
menu is displayed and enter the
path/filename of the report being
printed. You may opt to use the DTE
logicals defined to allow for more
filename
characters.
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For example, RPT logical is
assigned to the folder where
all DTE queued reports are
stored. Using the same A/P
example, you could enter the
filename of
RPT:vendhist_2000.rpt
and
RPT:ckhist_2000.rpt
,
respectively to represent the
records for the year
2000.
Once
created, be sure to move/copy the report
file(s) to your newly created
(archive)
directory/folder.
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Step
3: Ready to Purge
Now that you have the
data stored in report form for reference,
you can purge the same date range of
records from the DTE data file. The purge
routines are found in the Miscellaneous
menu column and are identified for the
specific purge process such as “Purge
history” (A/P and O/E), "Purge YTD
transactions" (G/L), "Purge customer
history" (A/R), etc.
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Options &
Choices
Purging small groups or by each
year:
Although
you can purge through any date, you may
want to purge only a small group of data
records at a time, say one year. Also be
sure to enter Yes
to
the Save deleted
records prompt.
- For example, print the
history reports from the first date in
the data file through the first
completed year of business using DTE -
let’s say December 31, 2000. Include
that ending year in the name of the
report file and purge the history file
through that same
date.
Capturing
and naming the archived
records:
The saved archive file containing the
deleted records is always named the same,
as WRK:xxxxxx.pur
where
xxxxxx
is the
name of the file being
purged. Therefore, you must
rename the file, prior to purging the next
group of history records. Maintaining a
reference to the dates within the file
helps identify the contents in the
future.
It
is STRONGLY SUGGESTED that you
rename the archive file as
soon as possible to eliminate the
possibility of the next purge
overriding the archive records by
mistake.
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Success! You now have a reference report
and the saved off data records should you
ever need to recover the
data.
Both the report(s) and data records are in
flat/ascii text file format and can be
opened with any system editor or Word
Processing
program.
Should you need to load the purged data
back into the data file, DTE includes a
utility to do that -- System Manager
>> Files menu column >>
Load file.
Back to
top
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Refer
to the individual
application User's
Reference
manual for more
information. Additional
assistance is also available from our Technical Support
department.
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