If any single entity were to be used for types instead of one per type, why not Enumeration? And yes, that is what I did with the Mantle data model.
Still, I agree with Jacopo... It is not worth the change repercussions for OFBiz. What you described is a problem with lack of research and/or experience, and I don't think what you described would be any more helpful. -David On Oct 6, 2012, at 10:19, Adrian Crum <[email protected]> wrote: > So your opinion has changed... > > http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/ofbiz-dev/201103.mbox/%[email protected]%3E > > -Adrian > > > On 10/5/2012 10:23 AM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote: >> HelloAdrian, >> >> in my opinion it would be better to leave the data model as is, but improve >> the descriptions of the types (and documentation, in the form of comments to >> xml data) and also enhnce our utils to deal with types (the Product already >> has something in place). >> >> Regards, >> >> Jacopo >> >> On Oct 1, 2012, at 8:14 AM, Adrian Crum wrote: >> >>> I mentioned this once before as part of another discussion, but I'm >>> creating a new discussion so it can receive the attention it deserves. >>> >>> The Data Model Resource Book describes entity subtypes. OFBiz implements >>> entity subtypes by adding a field to the supertype that points to a *Type >>> entity that contains valid subtypes. >>> >>> The problem is users (and some developers) do not understand that pattern, >>> and they add invalid subtypes to the *Type entity. That can cause things to >>> break. As an example, I have a client who created additional ProductTypes >>> (that actually represented product categories) and used those added >>> ProductTypes for their products. Then they were puzzled why their order >>> fulfillment process stopped working. >>> >>> I think what we need is an EntitySubtype entity to store the subtype data. >>> Instead of multiple *Type entities, we would have a single EntitySubtype >>> entity, and the supertypes will point to it. The supertype field could be >>> called something like entitySubtypeId. The EntitySubtype entity will be >>> clearly documented as to its purpose and proper use. >>> >>> EntitySubtype >>> ------------- >>> entityName* >>> entitySubtypeId* >>> description >>> >>> What do you think? >>> >>> -Adrian >
