Database and User Management
In the Database Management tab (available in the menu bar when you are logged in), you will find some useful links to create a new database, and to edit, upgrade/renew or delete existing databases.
Create a New Database
If you want to create a new database, click the “Create a New database” link and follow the instructions under Getting Started with a New Database. Note that only one free database can be created per user.
If you are setting up an empty database, that is, it is not preloaded with the demonstration data, then you will also have to follow these additional steps:
Setting Up Your Own Database
Once you have explorer with the demonstration database, you will want to setup your own database from scratch and start importing your own data into Ciiva. After creating a new database, there are a couple of steps you need to follow before you can begin importing data.
Configuring enumeration values
Before you import you BOM data into Ciiva, you need to setup the Product Status and Approval Status enumerations.
The product status enumeration describes the status for each product version. You can customise the values based on your company’s process and naming convention. We would recommend “Sample”, “Volume Production” and “End of Life” as a starting point.
The approval status enumeration values are used for manufacturer components to indicate the approval status of a component, again, values for which are customised based on your company’s process and naming convention. “Submitted”, “Rejected” and “Approved” are an example of some initial values.
For more information on managing enumerations, please see the section Enumerations.
Create a product and product version
Before you can import a bill of materials, you will need to create a product and a product version. For more information on creating new products and product versions, please see the section Products and Product Versions.
In order to edit, upgrade/renew or delete this database thereafter, you must have the administrator rights. When you create a database you become its administrator by default.
User Management
A key benefit of Ciiva is the ability for multiple people to work on the same component database in real-time, so unless you are a solo user, you will likely need to add more users to your database over time. To invite additional people to collaborate on your database, go to the Database Management menu option on the website (available only when you are signed in) and select the “Edit” action for the database to which you wish to add a new user.
Select the User Management tab in the Database Configuration section to list all the users currently assigned to your database. To invite a new user to join, click the Add user to this database option. You will then be prompted to add the email address of the person you wish to add. Please note that the email address must be associated with an activated Ciiva user account for the user to be successfully added to the database.
The user will receive an email to the specified email address asking them to accept the invitation to join your database. Once the user accepts this invitation, then the database will be available for them to log in to by selecting the database from the drop down list in the login form.
You will see two options when creating a new user, which are used to define the user’s role and rights.
- Administrator: only administrators can edit, upgrade/renew or delete the selected database at ciiva.com.
- Read-only: read-only users do not have the rights to make changes to any data, such as updating components/BOMs, creating enumerations, or uploading files.
If you want to change the role of a user, you can always come back and make your changes following the “Edit” action.
Database Backup
Ciiva allows you to create up to two backups of your database. In case your database is corrupted or you delete it by mistake, you can use this feature to restore your database to a previous point in time.
Creating a backup is quite simple. Select the Maintenance tab and enter a name for the backup, then click “Save”, and your backup will be created right away.
Select the “Restore” action if you want to restore the database with this backup.
Delete a Database
When a database is no longer needed, you can remove it by selecting the “Delete” action.
If it is a free database, it will be removed permanently and there is no way to restore it. Therefore, please be very careful when deciding to delete a free database.
If it is a Pro database, instead of being removed physically this database will be deactivated and retained on the server for a period of seven days. Within this time you can still restore it whenever you want, but after seven days this database will also be permanently deleted. To restore a database, select the “Restore” action.