Permitted Information Store schema changes

After you create an Information Store schema and use it in a deployment, i2 Analyze restricts subsequent changes to that schema to ensure that data in the system remains accessible. In general, you can add content to a published Information Store schema, but you cannot take content away.

To be specific, i2 Analyze prevents changes to a schema that might invalidate data that is already stored. For example, if you remove an item type from the Information Store schema, then the store might contain data for which i2 Analyze no longer has a definition. However, you can make additive changes to the schema. You can also disable or hide item or property types in some parts of the system, if you are certain that they are no longer required.

Permitted changes

You can make the following changes to the Information Store schema of a live deployment:

  • Add an item type.

  • Change the display name of an item type.

  • Change the icon of an item type.

  • Add a property type.

  • Change the display name of a property type.

  • Change the display order of a property type.

  • Increase the value length of a property type.

  • Make a property type non-mandatory.

  • Add a grade type.

  • Add a labeling scheme.

Prevented changes

i2 Analyze prevents all of the following Information Store schema changes from taking place against a live deployment:

  • Change the schema identifier.

  • Remove an item type.

  • Remove an entity type from the permitted list for a link type.

  • Remove a property type.

  • Make a property type mandatory.

  • Remove a default property value.

  • Remove a property value from a selected-from or suggested-from list.

  • Change the logical type of a property type.

  • Remove a grade type.

  • Remove a link strength.

To protect your data when you redeploy with a modified Information Store schema, i2 Analyze carries out validation checks to ensure that the changes you made do not result in data loss.

Permitted changes that do not affect the Information Store

You can make the following changes to the Information Store schema of a live deployment. However, they do not affect the store, which means that users still see items with hidden types when they run a quick search, for example:

  • Add a link constraint.

  • Add a link strength.

  • Disable an item type.

  • Hide an item type.

The disable and hide functions change how item and property types behave in the deployment without making any destructive changes. Use these features with caution though because they can affect the behavior of visual query and import operations.