Object Type Properties - Connection External Database - Change Object ID

Yes, I have run into an issue like this before where a client was updating a value in their system which was also being used as the object ID in M-Files. If the object ID changes, the impacts in M-Files is that it deletes the object with the initial ID and creates a brand new object with the new ID. Unfortunately I did not find an easy way to fix the items displayed as (Deleted), I ended up writing an external application which connected to the vault and looped through the documents for that class to update the deleted values to reference the correct object ID. 

Hello,

Thanks for your answer. M-Files proposed me exactly the same thing... there is unfortunately no magic way to do that.


1. Create a new object type for the External Database Connection and get the objects.

2. You can disable the connection from the old object type so it stays as it is.

3. Create a script that goes though the bot object types and modifies the new one in the desired way.

4. Delete the old object type.

Regards
Claudio

I am aware that there is a rarely-used way to change the column used for the object ID.  You can effectively configure both the "old" and "new" object ID columns, M-Files will ensure that everything is updated, then you can remove the old one.  This should keep the relationships intact.

However: it is rarely used, and I am aware of at least one partner having an issue with it that meant they had to revert to a backup.  So I would urge caution (and to ensure that you have a good backup, and a tested restore procedure).  I seem to recall that their specific issue was that there was an overlap in the IDs (one of the new ID values was used as an old ID as well) and that caused the problem.

Support should be able to tell you more.

Dear All,

I've created a PowerShell script that does the work.
If it can help any of you, here it goes.

<#
@Author : Claudio Leitao
@Date : 28.04.2022
@LastModification : 28.04.2022
@Version : 1.0
@Description : This scripts replaces deleted lookups in documents and replace them with the new ones
#>

# Retrieve the necessary DLL in order for this script to call the native M-Files COM API Function
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\M-Files\$env:mfilesversion\Common\Interop.MFilesAPI.dll"

# Returns the M-Files VaultConnection Object
Function Get-MFilesVault {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [string]$Name,
        [parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [object[]]$Connection
    )

    $Connection.GetVaultConnection($Name)
}

# Tests the connection to the Specified Vault and returns its result
Function Test-MFilesVaultConnection {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [object[]]$VaultConnection
    )

    return $VaultConnection.TestConnectionToVaultSilent()
}

# Create a connection to the vault and returns the Vault with the user connected to it
Function Connect-MFilesVault {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [object[]]$VaultConnection,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [object]$AuthType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
        [string]$UserName,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
        [string]$Password,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
        [string]$Domain
    )
    
    return $VaultConnection.LogInAsUser($AuthType, $UserName, $Password, $Domain)

}

# Binds the VaultConnection to the Vault
Function Set-MFilesVaultConnection {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [object[]]$VaultConnection
    )

    $VaultConnection.BindToVault(0, $true, $false)
}

# Get the content of a specfic VIEW ID
Function Get-FolderContentItemsVIEW {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [long]$ViewID,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [object]$Vault
    )

    $FolderDefsView = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.FolderDefs
    $FolderDefView = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.FolderDef
    $FolderDefView.SetView($ViewID)
    $FolderDefsView.Add(-1, $FolderDefView)

    Return $Vault.ViewOperations.GetFolderContents($FolderDefsView)
}

# Get the project lookup based on its submission number
Function Get-ProjectLookup-FromSubNum {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [long]$ViewID,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [object]$Vault,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [String]$ProjectSubNum
    )

    # Get the Folder Content items set with a view ID
    $FolderContentItems = Get-FolderContentItemsVIEW -ViewID $ViewID -Vault $Vault

    # Look for each Project
    foreach ($item in $FolderContentItems){

        # Get the property of the current ObjVer Item
        $ObjVerProp = $Vault.ObjectOperations.GetObjectVersionAndProperties($item.ObjectVersion.ObjVer, $true).Properties

        # Get the projects name
        $ProjectSubNumber = $ObjVerProp.SearchForProperty(1435).TypedValue.DisplayValue

        if ($ProjectSubNumber -eq $ProjectSubNum){
            $ProjectLookup = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.Lookup
            $ProjectLookup.item = $item.ObjectVersion.ObjVer.ID
            $ProjectLookup.version = -1
            Return $ProjectLookup
        }
    }

}

# Set the new project on the document
Function Set-NewProject {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [long]$ViewID,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $True)]
        [object]$Vault
    )

    # Get the Folder Content items set with a view
    $FolderContentItems = Get-FolderContentItemsVIEW -ViewID $ViewID -Vault $Vault

    foreach ($item in $FolderContentItems){
        
        # Get the property of the current ObjVer's Item
        $ObjVerProp = $Vault.ObjectOperations.GetObjectVersionAndProperties($item.ObjectVersion.ObjVer, $true).Properties

        # Get the projects name
        $ProjectName = $ObjVerProp.SearchForProperty(1320).TypedValue.DisplayValue
        # Get the projects submission number from its name
        $ProjectSubNumber = $ProjectName.Substring(0,8)

        # Gets the project Lookup
        $ProjectObjLookup = Get-ProjectLookup-FromSubNum -ViewID 428 -Vault $Vault -ProjectSubNum $ProjectSubNumber

        # Creates a new ObjVer for Check Out and Check In
        $newDocObjId = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.ObjID
        $newDocObjId.SetIDs(0, $item.ObjectVersion.ObjVer.ID)
        $newDocObjVer = $Vault.ObjectOperations.GetLatestObjVer($newDocObjId, $False, $True)
        $newDocObjVer.Version = ([int]$newDocObjVer.Version + [int]1)

        # checks out the document
        $Vault.ObjectOperations.CheckOut($newDocObjVer.ObjID)

        # Sets the new project lookup
        $projectPropVal = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.PropertyValue
        $projectPropVal.PropertyDef = 1320
        $ProjectPropVal.Value.SetValue([MFilesAPI.MFDataType]::MFDatatypeLookup, $ProjectObjLookup)
        $Vault.ObjectPropertyOperations.SetProperty($newDocObjVer, $ProjectPropVal)

        # Checks the object IN
        $Vault.ObjectOperations.CheckIn($newDocObjVer)

        
    }
}

# MAIN PART OF THIS SCRIPT
# Execute all the correct functions with the correct paramaters 

# Using M-Files Client
$MFClient = New-Object -COM MFilesAPI.MFilesClientApplication

# Get M-Files Vault Connection
$VaultConnection = Get-MFilesVault -Name "PPSA" -Connection $MFClient

# Test Connection to Document Vault
$ConnectResult = Test-MFilesVaultConnection -VaultConnection $VaultConnection

# View ID
$ViewID = 427

If($ConnectResult -eq 0){
    # Connect to Document Vault
    $Vault = Set-MFilesVaultConnection -VaultConnection $VaultConnection

    Set-NewProject -ViewID $ViewID -Vault $Vault

} ElseIf ($ConnectResult -eq 1){
    # Connect to Document Vault using different credentials
    $Vault = Connect-MFilesVault -VaultConnection $VaultConnection -AuthType $([MFilesAPI.MFAuthType]::MFAuthTypeSpecificWindowsUser) -UserName "xxxxxx" -Password "xxxxxx" -Domain "AD"   

    Set-NewProject -ViewID $ViewID -Vault $Vault
} Else {

   $SMTPPwd = "xxxxx"
   $SMTPUsername = "xxxxxx"
   $secpasswd = ConvertTo-SecureString $SMTPPwd -AsPlainText -Force;             
   $credentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($SMTPUsername, $secpasswd);

   Send-MailMessage -To "xxxxxx" -from "xxxxx" -SmtpServer "xxxxxx" -Port xxxx -Subject "xxxxxxx" -Credential $credentials -BodyAsHtml  -Encoding utf8;    
}

Regards,
Claudio

Hi Craig,

can you share more details how to configure object type to use both new and old object ids? Is there any documentation for this?

It would interesting to test it at least as those changes can happen in any business.

Best,

Dejan

We don't have any public documentation, unfortunately.  If you have this requirement then I suggest that you speak to your account manager to see what support we can give you.

That said: I would highlight that this isn't something that you would want to be doing frequently.  It is a process that I would only do in very limited situations.

Ok, thanks Craig.

Hi Claudio, can you explain what does the script do exactly?

Dear Karlo,

It's a Powershell script using the COM.API of M-Files.
It starts a vault session with a specific account and replaces all (deleted) lookups with  new ones.

I made this script because we had references problems with external objects and needed to change their Object ID. When you do so, you lose the ref to other documents.
So i'm just looking for those deleted references and replace them with the new and correct ones.

Hope it helps,
Claudio

Thanks for the info! Does the script needs to be adjusted based on certain class? Because in my scenario we have a class "Items" which is currently connected to Access DB and it has IDs as number from DB "123" but we need to connect it to the different one where IDs dont match, in that second database the IDs are "HR123". Would this script help in this situation?