Reloading availability data

You can make changes to availability data in Product Designer and upload these changes to a running PolicyCenter server or clustered group of servers. The types of availability data you can upload are:

• Lookup tables
• Availability scripts
• Grandfather states

For example, you want to discontinue the personal auto product in Alaska one month from now, or you want to grandfather collision coverage in Texas. You can make these changes to the product model in Product Designer, and then upload the changes dynamically to PolicyCenter without taking the server off line.

To reload availability, you must copy the product model files to an external directory that is accessible to the application server. Then in PolicyCenter, use the Server Tools > Product Model Info screen to access the Reload Availability command. Alternatively, you can restart the PolicyCenter server to read the new availability data from the external directory.

PolicyCenter loads availability data from the directory specified by the ExternalProductModelDirectory parameter in config.xml at both server startup time and when a reload is requested. However, it does so only if all of the following are true:

• The parameter specifies a directory accessible to the application server.
• The directory is not in the deployment directory tree.
• The directory contains a complete product model definition that only defines existing patterns.
• The directory contains at least one lookup XML file ending in -lookups.xml.
• The files in the directory are valid.

Otherwise, PolicyCenter loads availability data from the standard configuration directory at server startup time, and any attempt to reload fails.