Updating existing IEG scripts and returning them to production

Merative ™ Social Program Management is now Cúram ™ by Merative™

Updating existing Merative ™ Social Program Management IEG scripts and placing them back into a production environment

Question & Answer

Question

Are there any recommendations when updating existing Merative Social Program Management Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG) scripts and placing them back into a Production environment?

Answer

When it comes to updating existing Merative Social Program Management Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG) scripts and placing them back into a Production environment, due care and attention is required so as not to cause problems when attempting to resume these scripts after the upgrade.

Resuming existing IEG script executions with an updated IEG Script definition is not something we would encourage. Depending on the type and complexity of the script definition changes, the resumption of such executions could be fraught with issues and complexities which could be very difficult to diagnose and fix.

Therefore, you should take care when it comes to the type of script definition changes you make and upload on to an existing system; whilst still expecting your existing script definitions to function and resume correctly.

With this in mind please consider the following scenarios:

• The script changes that you need to make are significant (for example new pages added, new questions etc.).
  • If your script changes are significant we would not recommend resuming existing IEG script executions with an updated IEG Script definition. In this situation we would recommend using script versions to make sure any new questions are answered and to prevent problems in the navigation..

Please Note : Under certain circumstances depending on how far the user went into the execution and on the exact change that was made in the definition, the engine won't be able to find the page that the user had reached. The script answers will still be pre-populated with the values that had originally been entered but the user will have to start the navigation from the first page.

• The script changes that you need to make are minimal and you are confident that it won't affect the navigation.
  • If you have a requirement to make minor changes to an IEG Script definition, to be able to resume existing executions at the correct page, internal IDs will need to be maintained. The procedure outlined below should be followed to ensure the integrity of the internal identifiers within the IEG script definition and to ensure existing instances of that script definition can be resumed successfully:

1.  Take a copy of the script definition from the Production database (which contains all of the existing internal identifiers)
2.  Place this in a development environment
3.  Make your required script changes
4.  Upload the modified script definition through the admin pages provided. This will generate internal identifiers for any new script elements added as part of the modification
5.  Extract this script definition from the development environment and insert it onto the Production environment (thus maintaining the internal identifiers)

You should now able to resume your existing script instances as all of the existing internal identifiers will remain the same and any new element will contain new identifiers.

• The script changes that you need to make are cosmetic (text only).
  • In this scenario, when only cosmetic (text only) changes are required, there is no need to modify the script definition, only the properties file(s).

For further information on the Merative Social Program Management Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG) component, please see the IEG documentation available on the Documentation (links below).

Related Information

Authoring Intelligent Evidence Gathering scripts

Working with Intelligent Evidence Gathering