Product ID - alpha numeric?

[softap]

Hi

 

I want to use my existing real-world product codes as the product id in OSC.

 

I see that currently, OSC uses numeric, autoincrement product IDs. Has anyone changed it so that it uses alphanumeric IDs which are (obviously) not auto incrementing? I am worried that relationships and other stuff are going to break if I change the field type in the products table.

 

I know I could just add a new product_code field and leave the existing ID field unchanged, but I want to use Eazy Populate to import data, and this will match on the ID field which will not always be available in datat that I am going to import from external sources.

 

Andy

[stevel]

There is an existing "Model" field, which is what you would use for your product ID. But I don't think there would be problems changing the product_id field to be alphanumeric, as long as you took care of assigning the values yourself. I'm not aware that the numeric value is used as anything other than a record identifier.

[softap]

Thanks, yeh, I looked at the 'model' field, but if you think about people selling books or CDs (which is what I do!)......then you need

 

ISBN (or CD item code)

Title

Author

 

I can use 'model' for the Title, 'manufacturer' for the Author, which leaves me without anywhere to put the ISBN or CD item code.

[stevel]

You can add arbitrary fields to the product record. You just need to add the UI bits to set and display them. You'd probably want the search to look for them too (I don't use the osC built-in search, however.)

[softap]

Oops i think i've been a wally...

 

I missed the product name field in the 'product descriptions' table

 

So I can use:

 

ISBN = product_model

Title = product_name

Author = manufacturer

 

with no changes required

[Guest]

there is a contribution which adds the fields you want to the site