This is the classic "synthetic key vs natural key" debate, and the general consensus is that synthetic keys are almost always the way to go. For exactly the reasons you describe. Yup, I think you answered your own question :-)
Jeff On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 4:21 AM, Drew Spencer <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi coders, > I have a little quandary here - I'm in the early stages of developing an app > that in essence, manages the details of companies. The 'main' objects as it > were, are accounts (ie a client of ours - it's a bit like a CRM system) > I decided to use the company name as the unique ID, but now this is causing > problems for when I want to change the name of the company (this does happen > quite a lot). > I have been modifying Chris Ramsdale's Contacts MVP tutorial with some > success over the last couple of days, but I find that when I try to update a > contact by changing the company name or phone number, it simply adds in a > new one and leaves the old one there (because the IDs are different the put > doesn't overwrite the old one, whereas if they both had the same Long ID > they could have different details on the name and phoneNumber fields but > still the same unique identifier (@Id)). > Now I COULD hack it and pass in the old account name, delete that one and > create a new account, but that seems like it's going to cause all manner of > problems. > Anyone got any suggestions, or am I answering my own question here? Long IDs > seem the way to go, but I like the fact that when I use my company name > string I don't have to perform a put() before I start adding lists of keys > to it, or is this just a minor thing? > Thanks > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine for Java" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-appengine-java/-/UVJrWjhNODVqdW9K. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine for Java" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java?hl=en.
