Empower Snapshot Table Views

In order for Enable to accept record attribute values that may be invalid or exceed database limits, Enable stores them in XML. Accessing or manipulating these attribute values requires parsing the XML, which can be time-consuming. For performance reasons, values that need to be accessed quickly or frequently can be included in the Empower DataMart Snapshot Table Views, (commonly called “snapshot tables”). Enable copies the indicated XML values, parses them, and stores them in the snapshot tables, in appropriately data-typed columns, where they can be searched and accessed quickly and efficiently. Only valid attribute values will be copied to the snapshot tables; invalid values will be stored as NULL.

A repository can have the following types of Enable snapshot table views:

• Main snapshot table.
• Category attribute snapshot table.
• Multi-language snapshot table.

Typically, when the main snapshot table view is referenced, it is called simply “the snapshot table”. The category attribute and multi-language snapshot tables are ancillary tables. If a main snapshot table exists, the category attributes and multi-language snapshot tables can be created to extend the abilities of the main snapshot table.