aras_x003A_uniqueness_helper

I remember that I have seen this one before, but I cannot remember in which context. Were do you see this property? In the database? In the client?

I can query this property in SQL and AML using the Nash tool. I would like to know what it is used for behind the scenes. It seems to be a duplicate of the item id.

The uniqueness property is used on ItemTypes which are versionable, like Part, Document, etc. . Non versionable ItemTypes like User will not have this property.

The property itself will be used as soon as you create a new revision of an item. The latest version of an Item will not have this property, while in the previous revisions the uniquness_helper is identical to the item id.

It´s a system property, automatically set on database level. I don´t know the exact purpose, but it´s propably used to keep data consistent when using revisioning. You shouldn´t have to take care for this one. 

Thank you but this doesn't really tell me what it is used for... which was my original question.

Hello,

Angela did a good job of summarizing what this property is used for, but I'll try to rephrase it. When a versionable ItemType has some number of unique properties set on it, this uniqueness_helper is used to differentiate two versions of the same item that may have the same combination of values for the unique properties. As stated previously, this is a system property that is automatically set and can be ignored for all practical purposes.

Chris

Christopher Gillis

Aras Labs Software Engineer

HI Chris, thank you for the information, however I have an inherited Itemtype that is being versioned by another program. One which does not create the property 'aras_x003A_uniqueness_helper' and I want to understand the effect of this.

If there is no benefit other than to guarantee uniqueness (which id provides), then I will ignore it.

Many thanks
Martin.

Hi Meismart, I think I now understand why you were asking this question.

I have a similar use case were I use a couple of federated Items in Aras.
Each of this Items right now has a unique id and config_id. But some of the federated items are just versioned instances of each other.

So it would be logical, to use identical config_ids for the Items that belong together. This way, the federated Items would use the same revision concept like regular Aras items. This would allow us to use the revision history for federated items.

But I have to admit that I haven´t tested this one yet. But in this context, the uniqueness helper might be relevant.