[Koha-devel] numeric identifier in tables

[Pierrick LE GALL]

Hi koha-devel,

I've seen some tables in the database where identifiers were not
numeric. This kind of things scares me ;-). Internaly, an application
should always manage identifiers numericaly, instead of limited
alphabetic identifiers (4 characters, uppercase, A-Z only).

Why don't we always use numeric identifiers? I suppose because we want
users to have an easy way to remember their record. My
previous experience learned me to solve this issue by having an
internal identifier (numeric of course) and an external identifier
(which is shown on screen, alphabetic with restrictions). Their is also
a uniqueness constraint on the external identifier (which I call
"code").

For example:

bookfundid  bookfundcode  bookfundname
1234        ABCD          My personnal fund
321         WXYZ          My brother fund

On screens, only the code would be shown, not the id.

Personaly, I don't think code (easy to remember identifier) is useful,
id + name are enough.

Cheers,

-- 
Pierrick LE GALL
INEO media system