Referential Diagnostics Report

The Referential Diagnostics Report examines a dictionary for two types of referential integrity problems: invalid direct references and invalid transitive references.

• Invalid direct references exist when one resource references a second resource that doesn’t exist. For example, a field that references a non-existent data type is an invalid direct reference.
• Invalid transitive references exist when a resource accessed via another resource doesn’t exist. For example, a report references a table resource directly. The table resource references field resources. If the report references a field from the table, but the field is no longer part of the table, the result is an invalid transitive reference.

To use the Referential Diagnostics Report, open a source dictionary and choose Referential Diagnostics from the Reports menu. A file dialog box will appear, allowing you to specify the name and location of the Referential Diagnostics Report.

1. Examine the report.

If any referential integrity problems were found, they will be listed in the report. If no problems were found, only the report headings will be included in the report.

2. Address any errors that were found.

If referential integrity problems were found, they should be resolved before you ship your application. Typically, this involves using Dexterity to re-establish the references between resources. To do this, delete the erroneous reference (the [Not Found]) and then re-establish the reference.

For example, if a data type is deleted, fields that used it will no longer properly reference a data type. Open the field definition for any field that referenced the deleted data type and choose another data type.

In other cases, you may have to remove the references to resources that have been deleted. The following are two common situations:

• Windows and reports contain references to strings that no longer exist. Typically, these strings are very short, and may be difficult to locate on the window or report layout. In some cases, they may be listed in the drop-down list in the Properties window. If this is the case, you can select them and then choose Clear from the Edit menu to delete them.
• Invalid string references on report frames. This occurs when the names of additional headers and footers for a report are inadvertently deleted. Re-add the additional header and footer names to solve the problem.

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