Posted by John Bell on 09/25/05 09:27

Hi Erland/Steve

"Erland Sommarskog" <esquel@sommarskog.se> wrote in message
news:Xns96DBF14D14D5AYazorman@127.0.0.1...
> John Bell (jbellnewsposts@hotmail.com) writes:
>> If you are not writing a new interface then you are probably better
>> using a fixed notation. Such as InvoiceNumber/VendorAcronym/Status. If
>> each part is a fixed length then you don't need a separator, but it may
>> help the users differentiate the different parts. I would have expect
>> that you can determine the fact that an invoice is a referral by a
>> different means.
>
>
> Now, how is that for a user interface? This is free text, and users will
> mangle it anyway, but they have better odds with a separator than fixed
> length.

That was my point, guess I should have said it that way! The users will
(probably) not like having to enter a coded string, even if you keep it as
simple! They may even deliberately mangle it if there is no value in it for
themselves.

>
> I have not intervened into this thread before, because I don't have
> much advice to offer Steve in this dire situation.
>
It seems to me, that if this an off the shelf package the benefits has been
lost some time ago, if this is a bespoke development then it has not been
specified thoroughly enough.

> Hm, possibly could have a trigger on the table that loaded a new table
> with the fields split in pieces. Still iffy with regards to the vendor,
> but at least no existing object is changed. (Then again, being on the
> vendor side of the fence, I know what I would think if I found that one
> of our customers had added a trigger to one of our tables.)

Writing a trigger may still invalidate the contract as the transactions will
be effected, the vendor may have the right to charge improportate fees to
fix a problem even if a problem is not related to this table. But if Steve
has already tweeked things that could already be the case! A trigger would
be useful for validation even if the replication route is not taken. Then
again Steve was worried about upgrades breaking things.

Dire may be an understatement!

Steve has my sympathy.

John

>
> --
> Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
>
> Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp
>

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