To avoid errors with your Experian applications, you should follow the following process:
Datasets that you are licensed to use can be downloaded at any time, and should be stored in a location accessible by your Experian applications. However, data that you download must not overwrite the data currently in use.
Instead, you should create a separate location for new data to be stored. For example, you might choose to regularly create a new location named:
Experian/Data/[Vintage]
to clearly identify the latest data on your system. The Vintage of each PackageGroup corresponds to the date at which the data was updated by Experian.
When new data is available, you should download it to the storage location you set up.
Before moving on to Installing and activating the data, you should ensure that all DataFiles within each PackageGroup have downloaded successfully. This is because additional datasets and DataPlus sets can only be used in conjunction with core datasets of the same vintage. Activating data early could render your Experian applications unusable.
For an example HTTP response containing Vintage, DataFile and PackageGroup information, see the API reference.
Once every DataFile within a given PackageGroup has been downloaded, you can install and activate the datasets within your Experian applications.
Installation takes place in an application's configuration file (Qaworld.ini, Qawserve.ini or acserver.ini) and requires that data mappings have been configured – see your product documentation for details. Your Experian applications must be restarted before the new data will become active.
It is possible to automate configuration file changes and application restarts using your own scripts. However, this is not covered in this guide.
It is a good idea to clean up old versions of data once you are happy that the new data has downloaded and is working correctly.
