I thought I'd post a few tips on schema gen where people here at AMS as well as some of you have run into some trouble. 

1.  Schema gen requires the Phoenix System odbc be set up and pointing to the DB you are logged into with the Phoenix Desktop.  Because schema gen uses the Phoenix connection via ODBC, if you aren't already using something like Policy Manager or Configuration manager you might not have your ODBC set up and pointing to the correct database.  Prior to generating schema, make sure you double check your ODBC DSN for Phoenix System and make sure it is pointing to the correct database.

2.  "Generate Schema" and "Deploy" are 2 entirely seperate activities.  If you have 3 lines of business, you must select each one and click "generate" for each LOB.  You then need to Deploy each LOB one at a time.  You can  not generate all 3 LOBs and then just deploy once.  Also, you will want to leave validations checked.  AOOSE requires the validation xml be generated and deployed.

3.  Here is a way to verify that your deploy worked successfully.  Go to your web server, navigate to the Program Files/AmsServices/PhoenixLinkWebService directory.  Open up your web.config file.  This is a structured XML file.  You should see a node for each Company with sub nodes for each Deployment.  You can also verify that all your deployed LOBs are present in this file.  Next, you can look in the same directory at the "Data" folder.  Verify that all your schema is present - organized in the same fasion using Company and Deployment.

4.  Don't forget to always reset IIS after you deploy!  The easiest way to do this is log onto your web server and go to Start -> Run.  At the command prompt type in IISRESET.  It will take a few seconds to reset.  Remember, each time it resets it will take a little extra time for the next web request.  The first request will cause it to load the cache.  Subsequent requests will be much faster.

5.  If you don't use integrated DB security, don't forget to change your connect string in the web.config for each deployment if you log in using PHXADM.  Deployment always defaults to use integrated windows security.  Remember to IISReset after you change this setting. 

6.  A good troubleshooting test to ensure you have set up your web services correctly is to navigate to them via a web browser.  To do this, open a browser and type http:// webservername>/PhoenixLink/Policy.asmx.  If you don't see the list of web methods, then you likely have an issue with your installation.  Double check the security settings as described in the 8.0 documentation.  If you still have trouble, try browsing to the policy.asmx directly from IIS logged into the web server.

Ok, that is all for now.

Eric Mathis

If you are generating schema and get an error stating "query cancelled by user", you may need to change the config file for your schema generator.  This file is found at C:\Program Files\AMS Services\Schema Generation Tool\AMS.PhoenixLink.Schema.UI.exe.config.  You can edit this file with notepad.

Find this setting:

setting name="QueryTimeoutMins" serializeAs="String">
        1

The value when the software is installed is set to 1 minute.  If you are using a slower DB server, you may want to increase this to 3 or more minutes.  Keep increasing this value until you have a successful schema generation. 

Hi Eric,

I'm in the process of installing 8.0, my last outstanding piece is getting the webservices set up properly and getting my schema deployed. I was checking out your tips. My schema seems to be getting generated w/no problems but  I keep getting "Error applying stored procedures to the database" when trying to deploy the schema. My schema generator log says '...ApplyStoredProcedures exception message - Value cannot be null...' and my web.config is not getting updated with deployment information.  Could part of the problem be that I already have schema info out there for regulatory reporting?

 Linda Wallace

Commercial Mutual Ins. Co.

Hi Linda - nice to see you here - Saba and I were starting to get lonely :).

It might very well be the early version you received that is causing the problem.  Here are a few things to try - you may already have one a few of these things.  I have been able to run schema gen against our copy of your DB here.  If you let me know which particular LOB you are having trouble with, I can give it a try again.

1.  Increase your QueryTimeOut parameter on the config file to something > 1 minute.

2.  The generate and deploy activities need to each be done once for every LOB to deploy.  So you have to go through each one and click generate, and then again through each one and click deploy.

3.  When you do the generate, once it is done go take a look and make sure the stored procedure SQL was created.  The SQL lives in a directory called SP that is directly below your schema.

4.  If the stored procedure SQL is there, open it up in query and verify that they are not there.  They all begin with PL - for example - PL_PHNXPHYSICALTYPES_POLICY.  You could try applying them manually as a test to see if maybe there is an issue with the generated SP syntax.  If they are already there, you might try manually dropping them and then re-running the new ones.  It could be that you have older syntax because you have used the version of xml web services from 10 months ago.

5.  Try doing the deploy without the "Apply Stored Procedure" checkbox checked.  I'd be interested to see if that is indeed the issue.  It could be failing during the web service copy as well.  Did you check to see if there is an error on the web server log?

Let me know how this works out.  -Eric

If you are receiving errors in OOSE or any rating call where a tree can not be found or open, it is possible you are using mapped drives for your art tree path in the web.config file.

A mapped drive will not work for a web service - since the mapping occurs during the log in process.  A fully qualified path is required.  If your company parameter ArtTreePath is set to a mapped drive, it will deploy this same mapped drive to your web server.

There are a few options around this. 

1.  You can go into the web.config and manually adjust the ArtTreePath to a fully qualified drive location.  You will need to adjust this each time you deploy.

2.  You can copy your art trees to the web server to a local drive and adjust your web.config accordingly.

3.  You could set up your company parameter to use a fully qualified path for art trees.