Forum OpenACS Q&A: Are object_id's /really/ unstable?

Collapse
1: Are object_id's /really/ unstable?
Posted by Carl Coryell-Martin on 03/13/03 12:24 AM
I have seen a couple of mentions in the fora that object_id's are not stable and should not be used in URL's because that will break bookmarking after sites are upgraded.

Am I really to understand that an objects id will change when I upgrade the site?

If so, I am deeply and profoundly disturbed and I think we have a serious problem.  I don't want bookmarks and links to break because I upgrade and I need to know if I need to maintain a seperate unique ID for all my objects.

Cheers,

Carl

Collapse
2: Re: Are object_id's /really/ unstable? (response to 1)
Posted by Dave Bauer on 03/13/03 12:43 AM
You can easily set the starting object_id sequence for the system above the highest object_id of your old system.

Then when you import users, and content, you can specify the existing ids. I used this method and it worked great.

I think an easy way to set the starting number of the object_id sequence, either from a  parameter file or the install web interface,  would be useful

Collapse
3: Re: Are object_id's /really/ unstable? (response to 1)
Posted by Jeff Davis on 03/13/03 12:46 AM
It's not upgrading that's the issue, for an upgrade of an existing site they won't change. The issue is if you try to migrate the site to a new install or merge two sites you will not be able to preserve the original site's object ids since there will inevitably be collisions.

It's an issue but not anything like as dire as you had assumed.