Painless data modification with blist. How to?

The business requirements are changing all the time. Since once in a while arises the need to change the data structure in already created application, my aim is to find out how different systems are dealing with it.

So, lets start with change of column type in the table in blist system.

Having already tested blist capability to handle large data volumes I take the list I’ve already created to check what can be done with the State column.


The column type is changed through column properties:


At first l try something not likely to happen, converting State into number:


One can see the system correctly recognized that such data conversion is impossible. Let’s try to do something more realistic now. As long as the quantity of states is a limited list its better to convert the column to pick list:


Unfortunately, after some time blist reported such an error. And I don’t think refresh browser is a solution in this case. The developers help is definitely needed here. The system doesn’t get a Thumbs up for methods of data modification yet, but I hope the solution will be offered.