Changes to the Perfion Query

The aim of the Perfion query is that it must be backwards compatible with all previous versions. However, sometimes it may be necessary to change something for a good reason.

This section describes specific changes since version 2.6 that may influence that may influence the behavior of an application utilizing the query.

Result Set: Item-data Elements (e.g. Products)

1. The behavior defined by the new select option 'IncludeFeatureViewOrder' was added as the default behavior in the previous version. However, since this behavior slows the query execution time slightly it is no longer the default query behavior. This option must be included for this behavior to be executed. Implication: If you have used the feature view order to arrange features for presentation in an application, this part of your application will fail. You will then have to alter your queries to include this new option.
2. If no ordering is specified (by the new Order-By functionality), the order of all the Items, are now sorted by ID. In the previous version the order was undetermined. Implication: None. (Comparing 2 result-sets side-by-side will show a difference).

Result Set: Feature Metadata

1. Features that are not specified in the Configuration for any of the Items returned by the query are no longer included in the Metadata. Previously many irrelevant features were included in the Metadata. Implication: This will not affect you unless you have used any of these irrelevant extra features.
2. When the Query Select option 'IncludeFeatureViewOrder' is used. The Feature metadata is sorted according to the view order of the features on the Items in the result set. If the result set has Items with conflicting viewOrder, then the viewOrder of the first found Item in the result set is used. If some Features are included Explicitly in the query, the order of these features are put first in their explicit order, and the order of all other configured features are offset by the count of explicitly included features. In previous versions the order of the Features, were to some extent Alpha-sorted, but in a number of odd cases undetermined. When the 'IncludeFeatureViewOrder' option is not set, then the order of the features will be alpha-sorted, with the exception that explicitly included features will be added first in their defined order. Implication: None. (Comparing 2 result-sets side-by-side will show a difference).
3. A feature element is included for every language specified. Previously some could be missing if there was no Caption in the specified language which has the consequence that some group information could be missing. Implication: Most likely you have been missing this information, so it will probably not affect your application.