Forum OpenACS Q&A: acs_attributes: table_name & column_name

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1: acs_attributes: table_name & column_name
Posted by James Thornton on 06/24/02 11:42 AM
Are the table_name and column_name columns in acs_attributes there for
indicating what the value, identified by attribute_name, references?
<p>
For example:
<pre>
create table contact_info (
  object_id  int primary key,
  name        text,
  state      char(2) references us_states(abbrev)
);
</pre>
If attribute_name was state, should table_name be us_states and column
name be abbrev?
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2: Response to acs_attributes: table_name & column_name (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on 06/25/02 10:57 AM
James,

I must say that I don't really know for sure, but I don't think the table_name/column_name pair has anything to do with foreign keys. I think in your example, they'd be "contact_info" and "state", respectively.

I'm pretty convinced that the acs_attributes metadata stuff was left off unfinished. And you can bet that it's on my task list to fix this. After you've written your list-one-edit-add-blah page flow for the 200th time, you get sad when you have to do it yet again (as I did just yesterday).

We're working on a project right now that's give us ample insight into the form builder and the demands of the real world. We've built a metadata-driven dynamic form-generation system, which will be cleaned up, then released. We've also made some additions and enhancements to the form builder itself, also to be released within a couple weeks.

My longer term plan is to build more and more dynamic-generation things up, with a strong focus on things that have been proven in the real world. I want to make OpenACS an even more RAD platform than it is.

/Lars