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The FEI Database

Last update on April 13, 1998
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Introduction

    The FEI (File Exchange Interface) database is a set of tables and supporting database objects and procedures that describe an FEI system. An FEI database can exists on its own, in which case it usually supports a set of missions, or it can be integrated with a specific mission database. The following diagram shows the tables in the FEI schema. Functionally, the fall into the following categories:

    File Types
    The heart of the FEI system. The fileTypes table describes the types of files managed by the system. As the following diagram shows, sooner or later, everything in the FEI system is related to a file type. In particular, services, or functions run for a particular file type, are closely associated with the definition of the file type.

    FEI Servers
    Information about the servers running in this FEI system. Also includes server parameters read by a server and used to configure a particular server.

    Files
    Information about files managed by FEI and the file's status values. Files are organized by file type.

    Missions
    Mission data held in a the missions table that is part of the dba database. If this table is defined, the mission ID, or mid can be added as an attribute to a row in the fileTypes table. The mid value in the fileTypes can be 0. In the case where there are other mid values, 0 means that the file type is "mission independent". If all of the mid values are 0, it probably means that no missions exists and the mid values can be ignored.

    Access Roles
    Security information that defines access roles and then associates file types and users with a role. This allows specified users to perform actions on files of particular types.

    Click on one of the tables in the diagram to go directly to the table's definition, or choose from one the categories listed below to get a broader introduction to the objects in the FEI database.