If a parent record in an origin table is deleted, the foreign key of the related feature turns to null. This has been a huge headache for our organization and it would be hugely helpful to have an option to disable this database behavior. Here are a few issues we have had to deal with:
- We have some reference geodatabases that get recurring updates where all features are replaced in the origin table on a monthly basis with updated data. We have a child table that tracks changes in origin data during each update period. This enables us to select a record in the origin table and view the related records to see all the changes that have occurred to that element over time. However, when we delete and append the data in origin table, all the foreign keys in the changes database become null. This is incredibly frustrating and we have had to workaround this for years.
- We have a field collection database with several relationships to tables and other features. Sometimes, an origin feature may accidentally get deleted by our field staff. They can recreate the origin feature, but all the foreign keys in related records are null and it's extremely difficult and time consuming to try to match up records.
Please consider an option to disable the default behavior of nullifying foreign keys when the origin record is deleted!
