How can I increase the length of a text field?

Question:
How can I increase the length of a text field?

Answer:
Once a field has been created, the length of the field cannot be modified. To resolve this issue, you need to create a new field of the same type with a longer length and then copy the data from the old field to the new one.
*Note: This method requires that you have a license for Autoindex.
*Important: If you are working in an on-premises system, take a backup of your database and cabinet storage location first.

1.  In DocuWare Administration, right click on Fields and select “Add Field”
    
2. Give your field a new name (for this article we will refer to it as NEWFIELD). In the copy settings from existing field, select the old field from the dropdown (for this article we will refer to it as OLDFIELD), then change the length to the desired value.
     
3. Click next to continue through to the end of the wizard. All the values will be identical to the old field, except for the name and length. 
4. Under “Predefined Workflows”, right click on Autoindex Workflows and click “Create New Workflow”.
     
5. Create an autoindex workflow with the following settings:
   1. Select a name. External data type is File Cabinet. Iterated Records are in File Cabinet to be Indexed.
       
   2. Choose the cabinet you are working in. Select “use filter to cabinet”. Put in the admin credentials for the cabinet. 
   3. Click Open search dialog. Click the plus button to create a rule for the filter that says “OLDFIELD” is not empty. This will improve the speed of the workflow by skipping records that do not have any data in that field.
       
   4. Repeat steps 5.2 & 5.3 with the exact same values for the external data. 
   5. For the match code, drop down the external Fields next to DWDOCID and select DWDOCID.
        
   6. Leave the default option “No Processing” and both boxes unchecked.
       
   7. Index Replacement. Find your new field in the column on the left. Under “entry type” select field. Under “replacement” select “OLDFIELD”
        
   8. External Data Replacement – Accept the defaults. 
   9. Replace Index without Matching External Data – accept the defaults. 
   10. Scheduling. Accept the defaults and click finish. 
6. Right click on the workflow you just created and start it. The time to complete the workflow will depend on the number of documents in your cabinet.
7. Once the workflow finished, NEWFIELD will contain the same data as OLDFIELD for every record in the cabinet. Run a search in the file cabinet to confirm this.
8. Right click on OLDFIELD and delete it after making sure the following considerations are addressed.
    

Considerations:

• OLDFIELD might have been populated by automated methods including, but not limited to:
  • Autoindex jobs
  • DocuWare Desktop Configurations (Import, Printer, Scan, Connect to Outlook, etc)
  • Connect to Mail
  • Predefined Entries in a store dialog
• You will need to update these to point to NEWFIELD before deleting OLDFIELD. You will not receive a warning if you try to delete OLDFIELD first.
• If OLDFIELD was utilized for Intelligent Indexing, you will need to update your field mappings and retrain your documents.
• There may be other considerations not covered in this document. Please consult with the party, who implemented the system, before carrying out this operation.