1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
2<!--NewPage-->
3<HTML>
4<HEAD>
5<!-- Generated by javadoc (build 1.5.0) on Thu May 15 17:17:33 EDT 2008 -->
6<TITLE>
7com.sleepycat.persist.evolve (Oracle - Berkeley DB Java API)
8</TITLE>
9
10<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="com.sleepycat.persist.evolve package">
11
12<LINK REL ="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="/style.css" TITLE="Style">
13
14<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
15function windowTitle()
16{
17    parent.document.title="com.sleepycat.persist.evolve (Oracle - Berkeley DB Java API)";
18}
19</SCRIPT>
20<NOSCRIPT>
21</NOSCRIPT>
22
23</HEAD>
24
25<BODY BGCOLOR="white" onload="windowTitle();">
26
27
28<!-- ========= START OF TOP NAVBAR ======= -->
29<A NAME="navbar_top"><!-- --></A>
30<A HREF="#skip-navbar_top" title="Skip navigation links"></A>
31<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="0" SUMMARY="">
32<TR>
33<TD COLSPAN=2 BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">
34<A NAME="navbar_top_firstrow"><!-- --></A>
35<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="3" SUMMARY="">
36  <TR ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">
37  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/overview-summary.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Overview</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
38  <TD BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1Rev"> &nbsp;<FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1Rev"><B>Package</B></FONT>&nbsp;</TD>
39  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1">Class</FONT>&nbsp;</TD>
40  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="package-use.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Use</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
41  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="package-tree.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Tree</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
42  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/deprecated-list.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Deprecated</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
43  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/index-all.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Index</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
44  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/help-doc.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Help</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
45  </TR>
46</TABLE>
47</TD>
48<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ROWSPAN=3><EM>
49<b>Berkeley DB</b><br><font size="-1"> version 4.7.25</font></EM>
50</TD>
51</TR>
52
53<TR>
54<TD BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="NavBarCell2"><FONT SIZE="-2">
55&nbsp;<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/package-summary.html"><B>PREV PACKAGE</B></A>&nbsp;
56&nbsp;<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/package-summary.html"><B>NEXT PACKAGE</B></A></FONT></TD>
57<TD BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="NavBarCell2"><FONT SIZE="-2">
58  <A HREF="/index.html?com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/package-summary.html" target="_top"><B>FRAMES</B></A>  &nbsp;
59&nbsp;<A HREF="package-summary.html" target="_top"><B>NO FRAMES</B></A>  &nbsp;
60&nbsp;<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
61  <!--
62  if(window==top) {
63    document.writeln('<A HREF="/allclasses-noframe.html"><B>All Classes</B></A>');
64  }
65  //-->
66</SCRIPT>
67<NOSCRIPT>
68  <A HREF="/allclasses-noframe.html"><B>All Classes</B></A>
69</NOSCRIPT>
70
71
72</FONT></TD>
73</TR>
74</TABLE>
75<A NAME="skip-navbar_top"></A>
76<!-- ========= END OF TOP NAVBAR ========= -->
77
78<HR>
79<H2>
80Package com.sleepycat.persist.evolve
81</H2>
82Utilities for managing class evolution of persistent objects.
83<P>
84<B>See:</B>
85<BR>
86&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="#package_description"><B>Description</B></A>
87<P>
88
89<TABLE BORDER="1" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" SUMMARY="">
90<TR BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" CLASS="TableHeadingColor">
91<TH ALIGN="left" COLSPAN="2"><FONT SIZE="+2">
92<B>Interface Summary</B></FONT></TH>
93</TR>
94<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
95<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Conversion.html" title="interface in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Conversion</A></B></TD>
96<TD>Converts an old version of an object value to conform to the current class
97 or field definition.</TD>
98</TR>
99<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
100<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EvolveListener.html" title="interface in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EvolveListener</A></B></TD>
101<TD>The listener interface called during eager entity evolution.</TD>
102</TR>
103</TABLE>
104&nbsp;
105
106<P>
107
108<TABLE BORDER="1" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" SUMMARY="">
109<TR BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" CLASS="TableHeadingColor">
110<TH ALIGN="left" COLSPAN="2"><FONT SIZE="+2">
111<B>Class Summary</B></FONT></TH>
112</TR>
113<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
114<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Converter</A></B></TD>
115<TD>A mutation for converting an old version of an object value to conform to
116 the current class or field definition.</TD>
117</TR>
118<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
119<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Deleter</A></B></TD>
120<TD>A mutation for deleting an entity class or field.</TD>
121</TR>
122<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
123<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EntityConverter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EntityConverter</A></B></TD>
124<TD>A subclass of Converter that allows specifying keys to be deleted.</TD>
125</TR>
126<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
127<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EvolveConfig.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EvolveConfig</A></B></TD>
128<TD>Configuration properties for eager conversion of unevolved objects.</TD>
129</TR>
130<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
131<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EvolveEvent.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EvolveEvent</A></B></TD>
132<TD>The event passed to the EvolveListener interface during eager entity
133 evolution.</TD>
134</TR>
135<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
136<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EvolveInternal.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EvolveInternal</A></B></TD>
137<TD>Internal access class that should not be used by applications.</TD>
138</TR>
139<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
140<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/EvolveStats.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">EvolveStats</A></B></TD>
141<TD>Statistics accumulated during eager entity evolution.</TD>
142</TR>
143<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
144<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Mutation.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Mutation</A></B></TD>
145<TD>The base class for all mutations.</TD>
146</TR>
147<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
148<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Mutations.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Mutations</A></B></TD>
149<TD>A collection of mutations for configuring class evolution.</TD>
150</TR>
151<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
152<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Renamer.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">Renamer</A></B></TD>
153<TD>A mutation for renaming a class or field without changing the instance or
154 field value.</TD>
155</TR>
156</TABLE>
157&nbsp;
158
159<P>
160
161<TABLE BORDER="1" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" SUMMARY="">
162<TR BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" CLASS="TableHeadingColor">
163<TH ALIGN="left" COLSPAN="2"><FONT SIZE="+2">
164<B>Exception Summary</B></FONT></TH>
165</TR>
166<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
167<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/DeletedClassException.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">DeletedClassException</A></B></TD>
168<TD>While reading from an index, an instance of a deleted class version was
169 encountered.</TD>
170</TR>
171<TR BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="TableRowColor">
172<TD WIDTH="15%"><B><A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/IncompatibleClassException.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve">IncompatibleClassException</A></B></TD>
173<TD>A class has been changed incompatibly and no mutation has been configured to
174 handle the change or a new class version number has not been assigned.</TD>
175</TR>
176</TABLE>
177&nbsp;
178
179<P>
180<A NAME="package_description"><!-- --></A><H2>
181Package com.sleepycat.persist.evolve Description
182</H2>
183
184<P>
185Utilities for managing class evolution of persistent objects.
186
187<h1>Class Evolution</h1>
188
189<p>For persistent data that is not short lived, changes to persistent classes
190are almost inevitable.  Some changes are compatible with existing types, and
191data conversion for these changes is performed automatically and transparently.
192Other changes are not compatible with existing types.  Mutations can be used to
193explicitly manage many types of incompatible changes.</p>
194
195<p>Not all incompatible class changes can be handled via mutations.  For
196example, complex refactoring may require a transformation that manipulates
197multiple entity instances at once.  Such changes are not possible with
198mutations but can be made by performing a <a href="#storeConversion">store
199conversion</a>.</p>
200
201<p>The different categories of type changes are described below.</p>
202
203<h2>Key Field Changes</h2>
204
205<p>Unlike entity data, key data is not versioned.  Therefore, the physical key
206format for an index is fixed once the index has been opened, and the changes
207allowed for key fields are very limited.  The only changes allowed for key
208fields are:</p>
209<ul>
210<li>The name of a key field may be changed, as long as this change is
211accompanied by a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Renamer.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Renamer</CODE></A> mutation.</li>
212<li>A primitive type may be changed to its corresponding primitive wrapper
213type.  This is a compatible change.</li>
214<li>For primary key fields and fields of a composite key class, a primitive
215wrapper type may be changed to its corresponding primitive type.  This is
216allowed because these key fields with reference types may never have null
217values.  This is a compatible change.</li>
218</ul>
219
220<p>Any other changes to a key field are incompatible and may be made only by
221performing a <a href="#storeConversion">store conversion</a>.</p>
222
223<p>Key ordering, including the behavior of a custom <A HREF="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Comparable.html" title="class or interface in java.lang"><CODE>Comparable</CODE></A>, is also fixed, since keys are stored in order in the
224index.  The specifications for key ordering may not be changed, and the
225developer is responsible for not changing the behavior of a <code>Comparable</code>
226key class.  <strong>WARNING:</strong>: Changing the behavior of a <code>Comparable</code> key class is likely to make the index unusable.</p>
227
228<h2>Compatible Type Changes</h2>
229
230<p>Entity data, unlike key data, is versioned.  Therefore, some changes can be
231made compatibly and other changes can be handled via mutations.  Compatible
232changes are defined below.  To make a compatible class change, a mutation is
233not required; however, the class version must be assigned a new (greater)
234integer value.</p>
235
236<p>Changes to a class hierarchy are compatible in some cases.  A new class may
237be inserted in the hierarchy.  A class may be deleted from the hierarchy as
238long as one of the following is true: 1) it contains no persistent fields, 2)
239any persistent fields are deleted with field Deleter mutations, or 3) the class
240is deleted with a class Deleter mutation.  Classes in an existing hierarchy may
241not be reordered compatibly, and fields may not moved from one class to another
242compatibly; for such changes a class Converter mutation is required.</p>
243
244<p>Changes to field types in entity class definitions are compatible when they
245conform to the Java Language Specification definitions for <a
246href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/conversions.html#5.1.2">Widening
247Primitive Conversions</a> and <a
248href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/conversions.html#5.1.5">Widening
249Reference Conversions</a>.  For example, a smaller integer
250type may be changed to a larger integer type, and a reference type may be
251changed to one of its supertypes.  Automatic widening conversions are performed
252as described in the Java Language Specification.</p>
253
254<p>Primitive types may also be compatibly changed to their corresponding
255primitive wrapper types, or to the wrapper type for a widened primitive type.
256However, changing from a primitive wrapper type to a primitive type is not a
257compatible change since existing null values could not be represented.</p>
258
259<p>Integer primitive types (byte, short, char, int, long) and their primitive
260wrapper types may be compatibly changed to the BigInteger type.</p>
261
262<p>In addition, adding fields to a class is a compatible change.  When a
263persistent instance of a class is read that does not contain the new field, the
264new field is initialized by the default constructor.</p>
265
266<p>All other changes to instance fields are considered incompatible.
267Incompatible changes may be handled via mutations, as described next.</p>
268
269<p>Note that whenever a class is changed, either compatibly or incompatibly, a
270new (higher) class version number must be assigned.  See <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Entity.html#version()"><CODE>Entity.version()</CODE></A> and <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html#version()"><CODE>Persistent.version()</CODE></A> for information on assigning
271class version numbers.</p>
272
273<h2>Mutations</h2>
274
275<p>There are three types of mutations: <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Renamer.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Renamer</CODE></A>, <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Deleter</CODE></A> and <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A>.</p>
276
277<p>A class or field can be renamed using a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Renamer.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Renamer</CODE></A>.  Renaming is not expensive, since it
278does not involve conversion of instance data.</p>
279
280<p>A class or field can be deleted using a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Deleter</CODE></A>.</p>
281<ul>
282<li>Deleting an entity class causes removal of the primary and secondary
283indices for the store, on other words, removal of all store entities for that
284class and its subclasses.  Removal is performed when the store is opened.  A
285<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Deleter</CODE></A> should be used for an entity class
286in all of the following circumstances:
287  <ul>
288  <li>When removing the entity class itself.</li>
289  <li>When removing <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Entity.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Entity</CODE></A> from the class
290  to make it non-persistent.</li>
291  <li>When removing <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Entity.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Entity</CODE></A> from the class
292  and adding <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Persistent</CODE></A>, to use it as an
293  embedded persistent class but not an entity class.  The version of the class
294  must be incremented in this case.</li>
295  </ul>
296</li>
297
298<li>Deleting a non-entity class does not itself cause deletion of instance
299data, but is needed to inform DPL that the deleted class will not be used.
300Instances of the deleted class must be handled (discarded or converted to
301another class) by <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Deleter</CODE></A> or <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A> mutations for the field or enclosing
302class that contain embedded instances of the deleted class.  A <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Deleter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Deleter</CODE></A> should be used for a non-entity class in
303all of the following circumstances:
304  <ul>
305  <li>When removing the persistent class itself.</li>
306  <li>When removing <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Persistent</CODE></A> from the
307  class to make it non-persistent.</li>
308  <li>When removing <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Persistent</CODE></A> from the
309  class and adding <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Entity.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>Entity</CODE></A>, to use it as an
310  entity class but not an embedded persistent class.  The version of the class
311  must be incremented in this case.</li>
312  </ul>
313</li>
314
315<li>Deleting a field causes automatic conversion of the instances containing
316that field, in order to discard the field values.</li>
317</ul>
318
319<p>Other incompatible changes are handled by creating a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A> mutation and implementing a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Conversion.html#convert(java.lang.Object)"><CODE>Conversion.convert</CODE></A> method that
320manipulates the raw objects and/or simple values directly.  The <code>convert</code>
321method is passed an object of the old incompatible type and it returns an
322object of a current type.</p>
323
324<p>Conversions can be specified in two ways: for specific fields or for all
325instances of a class.  A different <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A> constructor is used in each case.
326Field-specific conversions are used instead of class conversions when both are
327applicable.</p>
328
329<p>Note that each mutation is applied to a specific class version number.  The
330class version must be explicitly specified in a mutation for two reasons:</p>
331<ol>
332<li>This provides safety in the face of multiple unconverted versions of a
333given type.  Without a version, a single conversion method would have to handle
334multiple input types, and would have to distinguish between them by examining
335the data or type information.</li>
336<li>This allows arbitrary changes to be made.  For example, a series of name
337changes may reuse a given name for more than one version.  To identify the
338specific type being converted or renamed, a version number is needed.</li>
339</ol>
340<p>See <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Entity.html#version()"><CODE>Entity.version()</CODE></A> and <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html#version()"><CODE>Persistent.version()</CODE></A> for information on assigning
341class version numbers.</p>
342
343<p>Mutations are therefore responsible for converting each existing
344incompatible class version to the current version as defined by a current class
345definition.  For example, consider that class-version A-1 is initially changed
346to A-2 and a mutation is added for converting A-1 to A-2.  If later changes in
347version A-3 occur before converting all A-1 instances to version A-2, the
348converter for A-1 will have to be changed.  Instead of converting from A-1 to
349A-2 it will need to convert from A-1 to A-3.  In addition, a mutation
350converting A-2 to A-3 will be needed.</p>
351
352<p>When a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A> mutation applies to a
353given object, other mutations that may apply to that object are not
354automatically performed.  It is the responsibility of the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/Converter.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.evolve"><CODE>Converter</CODE></A> to return an object that conforms to
355the current class definition, including renaming fields and classes.  If the
356input object has nested objects or superclasses that also need conversion, the
357converter must perform these nested conversions before returning the final
358converted object.  This rule avoids the complexity and potential errors that
359could result if a converter mutation were automatically combined with other
360mutations in an arbitrary manner.</p>
361
362<p>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/EntityStore.html#evolve(com.sleepycat.persist.evolve.EvolveConfig)"><CODE>EntityStore.evolve</CODE></A>
363method may optionally be used to ensure that all instances of an old class
364version are converted to the current version.</p>
365
366<h2>Other Metadata Changes</h2>
367
368<p>When a class that happens to be an entity class is renamed, it remains an
369entity class.  When a field that happens to be a primary or
370secondary key field is renamed, its metadata remains intact as well.</p>
371
372<p>When the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>SecondaryKey</CODE></A> annotation is
373added to an <em>existing</em> field, a new index is created automatically.  The
374new index will be populated by reading the entire primary index when the
375primary index is opened.</p>
376
377<p>When the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>SecondaryKey</CODE></A> annotation is
378included with a <em>new</em> field, a new index is created automatically.  The
379new field is required to be a reference type (not a primitive) and must be
380initialized to null (the default behavior) in the default constructor.
381Entities will be indexed by the field when they are stored with a non-null key
382value.</p>
383
384<p>When a field with the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>SecondaryKey</CODE></A>
385annotation is deleted, or when the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>SecondaryKey</CODE></A> annotation is removed from a field
386without deleting it, the secondary index is removed (dropped).  Removal occurs
387when the store is opened.</p>
388
389<p>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html#relate()"><CODE>SecondaryKey.relate</CODE></A> property may NOT be changed.  All other properties of a
390<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>SecondaryKey</CODE></A> may be changed, although
391avoiding changes that cause foreign key integrity errors is the responsibility
392of the application developer.  For example, if the <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/SecondaryKey.html#relatedEntity()"><CODE>SecondaryKey.relatedEntity()</CODE></A> property is added but
393not all existing secondary keys reference existing primary keys for the related
394entity, foreign key integrity errors may occur.</p>
395
396<p>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/PrimaryKey.html" title="annotation in com.sleepycat.persist.model"><CODE>PrimaryKey</CODE></A> annotation may NOT be
397removed from a field in an entity class.</p>
398
399<p>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/PrimaryKey.html#sequence()"><CODE>PrimaryKey.sequence()</CODE></A> property may be
400added, removed, or changed to a different name.</p>
401
402<p>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/Persistent.html#proxyFor()"><CODE>Persistent.proxyFor()</CODE></A> property may be
403NOT be added, removed, or changed to a different class.</p>
404
405<h2>Warnings on Testing and Backups</h2>
406
407<p>The application developer is responsible for verifying that class evolution
408works properly before deploying with a changed set of persistent classes.  The
409DPL will report errors when old class definitions cannot be evolved, for
410example, when a mutation is missing.  To test that no such errors will occur,
411application test cases must include instances of all persistent classes.</p>
412
413<p>Converter mutations require special testing.  Since the application
414conversion method is allowed to return instances of any type, the DPL cannot
415check that the proper type is returned until the data is accessed.  To avoid
416data access errors, application test cases must cover converter mutations for
417all potential input and output types.</p>
418
419<p>When secondary keys are dropped or entity classes are deleted, the
420underlying databases are deleted and cannot be recovered from the store.  This
421takes place when the store is opened.  It is strongly recommended that a backup
422of the entire store is made before opening the store and causing class
423evolution to proceed.</p>
424
425<h2><a name="storeConversion">Store Conversion<a/></h2>
426
427<p>When mutations are not sufficient for handling class changes, a full store
428conversion may be performed.  This is necessary for two particular types of
429class changes:</p>
430<ul>
431<li>A change to a physical key format, for example, a change from type
432<code>int</code> to type <code>long</code>.</li>
433<li>A conversion that involves multiple entities at once, for example,
434combining two separate entity classes into a new single entity class.</li>
435</ul>
436
437<p>To perform a full store conversion, a program is written that performs the
438following steps to copy the data from the old store to a new converted
439store:</p>
440<ol>
441<li>The old store is opened as a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/raw/RawStore.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.raw"><CODE>RawStore</CODE></A> and
442the new store is opened as an <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/EntityStore.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist"><CODE>EntityStore</CODE></A>.</li>
443<li>All entities are read from the old store.  Entities are read using a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/raw/RawStore.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.raw"><CODE>RawStore</CODE></A> to allow access to entities for which no
444compatible class exists.</li>
445<li>The <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/raw/RawObject.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist.raw"><CODE>RawObject</CODE></A> entities are then converted
446to the format desired.  Raw objects can be arbitrarily manipulated as needed.
447The updated raw objects must conform to the new evolved class definitions.</li>
448<li>The updated raw entities are converted to live objects by calling the
449<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/EntityModel.html#convertRawObject(com.sleepycat.persist.raw.RawObject)"><CODE>EntityModel.convertRawObject</CODE></A> method of the new store.  This method converts
450raw objects obtained from a different store, as long as they conform to the new
451evolved class definitions.</li>
452<li>The new live objects are written to the new <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/EntityStore.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist"><CODE>EntityStore</CODE></A> using a <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/PrimaryIndex.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.persist"><CODE>PrimaryIndex</CODE></A> as usual.</li>
453</ol>
454
455<p>To perform such a conversion, two separate stores must be open at once.
456Both stores may be in the same <A HREF="/com/sleepycat/db/Environment.html" title="class in com.sleepycat.db"><CODE>Environment</CODE></A>, if
457desired, by giving them different store names.  But since all data is being
458rewritten, there are performance advantages to creating the new store in a new
459fresh environment: the data will be compacted as it is written, and the old
460store can be removed very quickly by deleting the old environment directory
461after the conversion is complete.</p>
462<P>
463
464<P>
465<DL>
466</DL>
467<HR>
468
469
470<!-- ======= START OF BOTTOM NAVBAR ====== -->
471<A NAME="navbar_bottom"><!-- --></A>
472<A HREF="#skip-navbar_bottom" title="Skip navigation links"></A>
473<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="0" SUMMARY="">
474<TR>
475<TD COLSPAN=2 BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">
476<A NAME="navbar_bottom_firstrow"><!-- --></A>
477<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="3" SUMMARY="">
478  <TR ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">
479  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/overview-summary.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Overview</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
480  <TD BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1Rev"> &nbsp;<FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1Rev"><B>Package</B></FONT>&nbsp;</TD>
481  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1">Class</FONT>&nbsp;</TD>
482  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="package-use.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Use</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
483  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="package-tree.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Tree</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
484  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/deprecated-list.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Deprecated</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
485  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/index-all.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Index</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
486  <TD BGCOLOR="#EEEEFF" CLASS="NavBarCell1">    <A HREF="/help-doc.html"><FONT CLASS="NavBarFont1"><B>Help</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;</TD>
487  </TR>
488</TABLE>
489</TD>
490<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ROWSPAN=3><EM>
491<b>Berkeley DB</b><br><font size="-1"> version 4.7.25</font></EM>
492</TD>
493</TR>
494
495<TR>
496<TD BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="NavBarCell2"><FONT SIZE="-2">
497&nbsp;<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/package-summary.html"><B>PREV PACKAGE</B></A>&nbsp;
498&nbsp;<A HREF="/com/sleepycat/persist/model/package-summary.html"><B>NEXT PACKAGE</B></A></FONT></TD>
499<TD BGCOLOR="white" CLASS="NavBarCell2"><FONT SIZE="-2">
500  <A HREF="/index.html?com/sleepycat/persist/evolve/package-summary.html" target="_top"><B>FRAMES</B></A>  &nbsp;
501&nbsp;<A HREF="package-summary.html" target="_top"><B>NO FRAMES</B></A>  &nbsp;
502&nbsp;<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
503  <!--
504  if(window==top) {
505    document.writeln('<A HREF="/allclasses-noframe.html"><B>All Classes</B></A>');
506  }
507  //-->
508</SCRIPT>
509<NOSCRIPT>
510  <A HREF="/allclasses-noframe.html"><B>All Classes</B></A>
511</NOSCRIPT>
512
513
514</FONT></TD>
515</TR>
516</TABLE>
517<A NAME="skip-navbar_bottom"></A>
518<!-- ======== END OF BOTTOM NAVBAR ======= -->
519
520<HR>
521<font size=1>Copyright (c) 1996,2008 Oracle.  All rights reserved.</font>
522</BODY>
523</HTML>
524