Question

Photo of Derek Mangrum

1

IsActive bit on Defined Values?

1

I am looking at porting our Prayer Book application from Arena to Rock. As part of this app, I assign a 'Ministry' and 'SubMinistry' to each contributor. My plan is to use a list of Defined Values for this data. The issue I am running in to is that these lists change over time, but I need to keep the old data around. For example, old entries need to be able to reference a Ministry that no longer exists.

Is there a plan to add an IsActive bit to Defined Values? That way, I can trim my list to only show active, while still having the ability to reference inactive Values in older entries.

Or, do I need to look at creating my own tables to store this data? Or, am I missing something else that solves this problem for me, which is entirely possible!  :-)

Thanks a bunch!

Derek Mangrum

  • Photo of Nick Airdo

    1

    We're considering adding IsActive as a property of DefinedValue (DV) and are reviewing the expected/desired behavior of certain edge cases such as:

    • You're editing something that has a required DV and the previously selected DV is now inactive.  a) it still appears in the dropdown (or similar) list as an option. b) it no longer appear (empty is selected) and you're forced to pick a new item in order to save. c) it appears as an option with the text (inactive) next to it.
    • You're adding a new something that requires you to select a DV.  a) inactive DVs are not in the list.

    In the mean time, you might consider adding your own custom Attribute for the DVs.  Just add an IsActive Boolean field type to its DefinedType and presto, you've got a place to track IsActive.  Take a look at the "Tools" DefinedType for an example of attributes on DVs in action.

    • Derek Mangrum

      Derek Mangrum

      Sounds good. The custom Attribute works like a charm. I implemented this and it works great! Easy to use. Attributes add so much flexibility! Thanks.