14.2. The object config system
Very often when creating new features, you need to set values at
the product or version level. We found this ourselves when adding new
features to Kartris. Rather than adding new fields in the existing
product and version tables, we came up with a better solution - the
object config system.
14.2.1. Adding settings
Each new setting required is added as a record to the
tblKartrisObjectConfig table in the database. The
data type can be string (s), boolean (b) or numeric (n). Once a record
has been added here, the new setting is immediately available on the
object config tab when editing products. Any values set are stored in
the tblKartrisObjectConfigValues
table.
There is no Kartris GUI for adding these values; it needs to be done manually within SQL Management Studio. However, it's not something that will be done routinely, and even then only by developers, so it's not something that we'd really want to have a back end page to handle doing anyway.
There is no Kartris GUI for adding these values; it needs to be done manually within SQL Management Studio. However, it's not something that will be done routinely, and even then only by developers, so it's not something that we'd really want to have a back end page to handle doing anyway.
14.2.2. Reading settings
Of course, as well as setting values, you will also want to read
them within whatever new code you write. Fortunately, the functions to
support this are already in Kartris. You can call an object config
value simply as follows:
Dim strSampleValue As String = ObjectConfigBLL.GetValue("K:product.myobjectname", numProductID)The numProductID value, which is the database
ID of the product (P_ID from the tblKartrisProducts
table) is available in some for or another in most places
that products are being handled.
You should of course replace K:product.myobjectname with the actual name of your object config setting.
You should of course replace K:product.myobjectname with the actual name of your object config setting.