Re: Creating an autonumber setup

--- Richi Watts <richiwatts@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Could someone explain to me how this could be done? I have seen > something similar using Access on a local machine and would like to > know if it is posible to do it in PHP and Mysql > In a project management web based applicaton using PHP and Mysql I > would need to allow the user to create > > Quote > Project > Customer > Supplier > Invoice > > Each time one of the above will be created it needs to be assigned > an autonumber. So If 3 quotes were created today each quote would > receive an autonumber, maybe something like the fllowing: > yy/MM/dd-01 > yy/MM/dd-02 > yy/MM/dd-03 > > Creating the autonumber isn't the problem if I want to have a set > way of numbering, however, is it possible for me to allow the user > to enter a setup page or something and define the way the > autonumbers will look like and be created for quotes, projects, > customers, suppliers or invoice. > > let's say I have five Project Managers each working with a seperate > version of the app. The app currently sets each new project created > with a default autonumber (let's say yy/MM/dd-01, -02, 03 and so > on), however, each Project Manager wants their database to number > new projects differently: > > PM1 = yy/MM/dd-a > PM2 = dd/MM/yy-01 > PM3= YY-2222 (Number being the amount of projects this year) > PM4 = PROJ-2222 (Number being the amount of projects ever) > PM5 = P-yyMMdd1 > > Instead of me creating a different application for each project > manager can I allow them to setup their own number system in a set > up page? > > Many thanks for any ideas > Richi > I'd suggest not mixing display with data storage. That is, use MySQL's autoincrement function to give each row in the table a unique ID. Then have a prefix/suffix combo for each proect manager. So if they want their numbering to be "Fred's project #234 for this year", the prefix could be "Fred's project #" and the suffix would be " for this year". You could have variables in there as well, and you can do number-> text translation if necessary (a,b,c rather than 1,2,3). But do the translation in the application (or your query), not within the database. That way if a project manager takes over another one's work, you don't need to change the data, just the function that handles the numbering schemes. ===== Mark Weinstock mark_weinstock@yahoo.com *************************************** You can't demand something as a "right" unless you are willing to fight to death to defend everyone else's right to the same thing. *************************************** __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com