Running A Build
To start the FastStats database build process, simply choose Build System from the FastStats System menu or hit the equivalent button.
Tip! Prevent accidental builds by checking Prevent System Build in the System Configuration.
The system build incorporates the following phases that are reported in the Progress window:
Pre-load Actions
A list of configurable steps that run before the build starts.
FastStats Designer extracts data from database sources if required. The frequency of data extract can be controlled through Configure Extract. If the data sources are in different format they will all be re-extracted to a common format before the data load continues.
Auto Discovery
FastStats verifies the source data for each table, checking the number of fields and data format to detect any obvious data issues at an early stage. FastStats scans the source data for each table and detects the size of all variables that do not have a user-defined field size (where the code size is set to 0). FastStats scans the source data for each table and automatically produces coding definitions for all variables that specify merge or replace codes. Where too many codes are detected (exceeding the specified threshold) the variable type is changed to a more suitable format.
Sort & Load
FastStats verifies the variable, table and relationship definitions and then sorts, joins, compresses and indexes the data to create a FastStats database
Post-load Actions
A list of configurable steps that run after the build finished. These allow virtual variables to be rebuilt and for the system to be deployed.