Changing Levels in a Category

You cannot directly modify the Number of Levels setting on a Category Definition once you have started adding codes to the category. Therefore, it is always advisable to plan the full hierarchy and structure in advance, to avoid having to make painful alterations later.

If you find that you must change the number of levels, you can follow the procedure outlined below. You should practice this procedure first in a test database to avoid any potential corruption to your production system. Also, you will need to perform the delete and re-import parts of the procedure off-hours so that you don't affect people who are actively using the system.

To change the number of levels in a category:

1. Export the existing codes using the Category Code Import/Export Utility.

2. Edit the export file in Microsoft Excel. Add or remove the necessary folder levels. (See the File Format section in Category Code Import/Export to determine how many columns you will need to add or remove.)

3. Delete the existing codes.
   This will not have any effect on existing data that uses these codes.

4. Change the value for the Number of Levels in the category definition and save your changes.

5. Run the Import/Export Utility again, and import the modified file corresponding to the new category structure.