Pre-Existing Bug

Throwing away a field or abacus that is no longer used can result in Update Collection reporting that the collection is damaged. (Diagnostic Code: 30/xxxx/xxxxxxxx)

This is a known bug from older versions of Helix. What has happened is this: at one time the "bad" icon was referenced by another icon (probably an abacus) but that reference was no longer needed, so the collection designer removed it. When this was done Helix failed to update an internal usage table, called a backlink table. Because the table was not updated properly, the referencing icon continues to believe that the unlinked icon is still needed. When you subsequently throw away the unused icon, the referencing icon’s backlink table is not updated. When Update Collection sees this situation, it marks this as a problem that is "not corrected" and flags it with error code 302.

It is important to understand that throwing away the unused icon does not damage the collection. The damage already exists; throwing the icon away is what reveals it.

There are a number of options:

1. Reuse the icon. There is no harm in this at all as the affected backlink table will either continue believing that the needed icons are intact or the object that uses the backlink table will be modified and the backlink table will be recreated, removing the incorrect reference.
2. If you can recall which icons may have referred to this icon in the past, recreate those icons and throw the originals away. This will also discard the associated backlink table and allow you to delete the unused icon.
3. If you can recall which icons may have referred to this icon in the past, copy those icons to the clipboard and paste them back into the collection, replacing the originals with exact duplicates. This will force the backlink tables to be reconstructed. If you can not remember which icons referred to the deleted icon, you can also try copy/paste of entire relations.
4. Go to a recent backup, copy the icons you deleted, and paste them into the damaged collection. The backlink tables should now find the needed icons.
5. Throw away the icons and arrange for a collection repair. Please see the pages on collection repair for procedures and charges involved. (Because this is caused by a bug inherited from the former company and because backlink repairs can be time consuming, we can not do these repairs at no charge. However, USU credits can be used for this repair.)

January 2012 Update: Helix RADE 6.2b8 (5767) addresses this bug by rebuilding all of the backlink (and related SUL) tables when a collection is opened. It is our recommendation that all collections be updated to Helix 6.x and opened with RADE 6.2b8 or later in order to correct any instances of this that may exist in your collection.

This bug has been reproduced in our test lab. The bug does not appear in current versions of Helix, but we are working on a way to "scour" existing databases looking for (and repairing) this type of damage. Until that solution is found, use one of the workarounds described above to repair collections that have this problem.

This bug existed in versions of Helix Express prior to our company's acquisition of Helix. Damage caused by this bug will continue to surface in current versions of Helix when previously created icons are discarded, until the collections are opened (and saved) in Helix RADE 6.2b8 or later.

This bug affects Helix RADE 6.2b7 and earlier, extending back to the Double Helix days.