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Connect to an External Terminology Database

  • Updated

You can connect Acrolinx to a database other than the freely distributed database formats that come with the Acrolinx Platform.

To configure the connection, you should be familiar with the operating system in use, TCP/IP networks, client-server systems, and the necessary communication protocols. You'll also need XML knowledge.

Major Steps

To connect to an external terminology database, confirm that Acrolinx supports your database format. Then you can create a new database and database user for Acrolinx and configure the persistence properties file in your Acrolinx installation. If you need to migrate an existing terminology database, ensure that you back up your terms first.

To connect to an external terminology database, follow these major steps:

  1. If you’re migrating terms from a native Acrolinx Terminology database, create a database backup from your existing terminology database.

  2. If you’re installing the Acrolinx Platform on a new computer, install Acrolinx and guidance packages according to the standard installation procedures under Install Acrolinx for the First Time.

  3. Prepare the external terminology database.

  4. Edit the database configuration properties in the persistence properties file.

  5. If you’re migrating terms from a native Acrolinx Terminology database, restore your database backup.

Supported Database Formats

For an up-to-date list of supported database formats, visit the Standard Stack Compatibility Guide.

Create a Database Backup from an Existing Terminology Database

Want to migrate an existing Acrolinx terminology database to an external database? Create a database backup from your existing Acrolinx Platform installation to get started.

To open the database backups page:

  • In the Navigation Menu, click Terminology > Import and Export > Database Backups.

To create a database backup, follow these steps:

  1. Click Create Database Backup.

  2. Right-click the Download Link that appears, and click Save Target As.

Prepare an External Terminology Database

To prepare an external terminology database for Acrolinx, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new empty database on your database server with the name of your choice.

    • We recommend selecting UTF-8 encoding for the database as this encoding type guarantees the ability to store terms in any language.

  2. Configure a username and password, which has full write permissions on your new database.

    Notice

    If you use an Oracle database to store analytics, reporting and terminology data:

    • Make sure that the username for the terminology database is different to the username for the reporting and Analytics databases. In Oracle databases, usernames are associated with a specific database schema.

    • The user for the terminology database has no permissions on the reporting and Analytics databases and the other way round.

    • You also need the following user permissions for an Oracle database:

      grant create session to <USER>;
grant create table to <USER>;
grant create sequence to <USER>;
grant create view to <USER>;
grant create procedure to <USER>;

Edit the Database Configuration Properties

If you want to configure a connection to an external terminology database, create an overlay of the installed persistence properties file. Update the persistence properties overlay with the connection details for your database and restart Acrolinx.

To configure the Acrolinx Terminology Manager to connect to your database, follow these steps:

  1. Stop the Acrolinx Platform.

  2. Open your overlay of the following file: persistence.properties

    If you haven’t yet created an overlay of this file, create a new version of the file at the following location:

    <config directory>/server/bin/

    Don’t edit the installed version of the file. Instead, always edit your overlay copy in the configuration directory.

  3. Add the following properties:

    terminology.dbType=<DATABASE_TYPE_SHORTNAME>
terminology.jdbcUser=<DATABASE_USERNAME>
terminology.jdbcPassword=<DATABASE_PASSWORD>
terminology.jdbcUrl=<DATABASE_URL>

    Replace the placeholder values with the connection details for your database:

    • Replace the placeholder <DATABASE_TYPE_SHORTNAME> with Postgres or Oracle.

    • Replace the placeholder <DATABASE_USERNAME> with the username that you defined in Preparing a Database.

    • Replace the placeholder <DATABASE_PASSWORD> with the password that you defined in Preparing a Database.

    • Replace the placeholder <DATABASE_URL> with the location of your database.

      The syntax of the jdbcUrl parameter can vary depending on the database format. To help you understand the syntax, you'll find sample values for the jdbcUrl parameter in the installed persistence properties file. The jdbcUrl parameter usually requires the IP address, the port, and the name of the database.

      The following table lists the standard syntax of the jdbcUrl parameter for PostgreSQL and Oracle:

      Database Type

      Syntax of the jdbcUrl Parameter

      Example

      Oracle 19c

      jdbc:oracle:thin:@<IP_ADDRESS>:<DB_PORT>/<DB_NAME>

      jdbc:oracle:thin:@192.168.0.37:1521/TERMS

      PostgreSQL

      jdbc:postgresql:<DB_NAME>

      jdbc:postgresql:terminology

  4. Save your changes and start the Acrolinx Platform.

  5. Check the log file for any errors or warnings.

Restore Your Database Backup

Want to use existing terminology data in a newly configured database? You can easily restore a database backup from your original terminology database.

To open the database backups page:

  • In the Navigation Menu, click Terminology > Import and Export > Database Backups.

To restore a database backup, follow these steps:

  1. Locate the database backup file using the Browse button.

  2. Click Restore Database Backup.

  3. In the security dialog, which appears, enter the word yes and click OK.

    Tip

    This type of dialog is an extra precaution to prevent you from overwriting your terminology database unintentionally.

    The import operation starts and a confirmation prompt appears when the import has completed.

  4. Restart all servers.

    Note

    If you don't reload the configurations of all installed language servers, the term help files don’t load correctly.