I know you're more curious and not interested in the supported angle, but I felt like I had to emphasize that I wouldn't recommend it because it'd be a maintenance nightmare. Every time you do a DB config or patch of Maximo you risk having the column switch to a standard column, breaking your customization. The reason is to perform certain structural changes, Maximo actually recreates the underlying table and creates it entirely based on what it knows the schema to be. That's why indexes/column changes outside of the Maximo framework are problematic.
You may also accidentally leave it editable in a field somewhere and then Maximo will try and set it in the update statement which I would assume would generate an error from the database server.
I understand the desire because it'd be great to be able to filter/use in a report a calculated value that you know is always up to date. SQL Server has a similar concept called Computed Columns that we've wanted to use but have always avoided for the reasons outlined above. There are many DB platform level features that would be great if Maximo would take advantage of but IBM has tried to be as database agnostic as possible. For example, all the database platforms support in-memory tables that can provide significant performance improvements on high transaction tables (like meter reading). But because each platform does it differently, IBM hasn't implemented that functionality.
I honestly think providing feedback to IBM about the importance of features like this is critical. Making the request in the RFE community and getting support for your idea and discussing it with the product team when possible is the best way to get these things supported. IBM has put a heavy focus on the RFE process and trying to address the customer requests in there and it shows. The amount of things being implemented in recent releases & planned for future releases is significantly higher than its ever been.
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Steven Shull
Director of Development
Projetech Inc
Cincinnati OH
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu November 19, 2020 01:07 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Virtual column in Maximo table? (Oracle)
It's possible to have virtual columns in Oracle tables:
"When queried, virtual columns appear to be normal table columns, but their values are derived rather than being stored on disc."
Virtual Columns in Oracle Database
Does anyone have any experience with adding a virtual column to a Maximo table (ie. WORKORDER)?
- I ask because I'm guessing the virtual column would be considered by Maximo to be persistent, which could allow for some interesting opportunities. For example, maybe we could use a virtual column in parts of Maximo that don't support non-persistent fields - without the need for creating a view/separate query/etc. Which might be handy for calculations that are used on a regular basis.
I know the knee-jerk reaction will be "it's not supported by IBM...be afraid, be very afraid". But that's not what I'm asking about. I'm just curious if anyone's tried it and how it went.
Thanks.
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