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Online Activation Programs make DB Changes

Description

1. Table activation programs

During the online activation of tables, all new database tables, or ones which are not yet available in the database, are created in the database within a successful activation.
Furthermore, all such structure changes to the table in the ABAP Dictionary, which can be made with ALTER TABLE... statements, are propagated in the database, but do not cause data loss. A requirement for the execution of the statements is, of course, that the table has no inconsistencies which prevent a transfer to active status.
All structure changes to tables which result in a conversion are not carried out by the table activation program. As before, they must be forwarded to the converter to be dealt with.

2. View activation programs

All new database views or ones which are not yet available in the database are created in the database during the online activation of views within a successful activation.
All changes to database views in the ABAP Dictionary which require an adjustment in the database are performed by the online view activation program by deletion and re-creation. The view must not have any inconsistencies which make an activation impossible.

Note:
A database view cannot be created in the database if the underlying tables do not exist in the database. In this case, it is noted in the log the view could not be created. Nevertheless, the view still becomes active. With the database utility, the view can then be created separately in the database later on.

3. Activation programs for secondary indices

During the online activation of secondary indexes, indexes which have not yet been created in the database are created during the activation.
Changed indexes are also changed in the database during activation, that is, deleted and recreated again.
In each case, the index must not have any inconsistencies.
If creating or changing in the database causes errors, (for example, because the basis table was not yet created) activation is cancelled with errors.