manufacturers_id in varchar instead of int

[warrenp]

I am transfering my back office database over to osc. My office software identifies each of the 150 manufacturers with a 5 letter code.

 

I would prefer to simply have osc identify manufacturers with this code rather than for me to have to convert it to an Integer every time I want to update my products database.

 

Off the shelf osc appears not to like text values in manufacturers_id (even when I change the field type using phpmyadmin). Does anyone know where the code is that I could change to allow osc to accept text values for manufacturers_id?

 

If this is too much of a hassle I will have to assign each text code a number and then have the codes replaced by the corresponding number. Does anyone know of a quick and easy way to do this? (in excel files, via phpmyadmin, or dbf files).

 

Any ideas much appreciated!