The amount of time it takes to apply application code changes can be greatly reduced by an advance compilation of your code against a CRC-compatible copy of your production database. To maintain CRC compatibility, start by creating a basic database, which is one that contains no data—only schema definitions. Use the basic database to seed a production database and a development database. The basic database is also saved, so you will have three copies of your database. If you already have a production database in place, the basic database is obtained by dumping the schema from that database.

As development occurs on a test copy of the database, the production and basic databases remain unmodified. When you are ready to promote your schema changes from development to production, first make an incremental data definition dump from the OpenEdge Data Dictionary by comparing the development schema with the basic database. The incremental data definitions can be applied to the basic database, and you can compile your application against that database. Second, the incremental data definitions can be applied at a convenient time on the production database (after appropriate testing). While the incremental data definitions are being applied, you can move the r-code you created against the basic database into place, avoiding additional downtime to compile the application code.