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New Field in Magazine DB (Sort)


Phillyman

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Ok, so the tl;dr version :P

We are going to move towards using actual magazine numbering schemes. I want to get us away from faking "issue" numbers to replace out Volume X, Number X. So what does that mean, well for magazines like Nintendo Power, they will stay the same "Nintendo Power Issue 100" however for magazines like "DieHard GameFan Issue 2" it will be renamed "DieHard GameFan Volume 1, Issue 2"

So that gives you two fields....

  • Issue Number
  • Alternative Number

I can turn on and off fields by category now, so I can make the "Issue" field invisible within Gamefan, and make the "Alternative Number" field invisible within Nintendo Power.

That is where the trouble begins, because the entire Database is sorted by "Issue" number when you go into a category. So If I make "Issue" number invisible, users can't fill it in, and the system will not know how to sort the records. If we change it to sort on "title", then the SQL sorting issue kicks in and we need to start prefixing two digit numbers with a leading zero....like we do in the Gallery and Download Manager.

So easiest thing to do is create a new field type called "Sort", make it a number field up to 999. Then do a mass SQL copy of the existing Issue numbers into it, then we can start using alternative numbering. I will make it so that only Staff and DB Moderators have control over the sorting at first, and then might give Team Members the ability to edit as well. But honestly for like 99% of the records....once sorted, no one will need to adjust them.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/1/2017 at 1:15 PM, Phillyman said:

So easiest thing to do is create a new field type called "Sort", make it a number field up to 999. 

Won't that break Famitsu, which has more than 1000 issues?

I recall kitsunebi77 suggesting that we sort by an 8-digit issue date starting with the year (yyyy-mm-dd) and thinking that was a solid idea. Issue number inconsistencies are a lot more common than people realize. Just a couple weeks ago I encountered it in CyberSurfer, where the issue number on the cover was inconsistent with the issue number on the page footer because of an apparent oversight.

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It's far and away better the sort via release date where possible.

It totally solves any sorting issues regarding issue numbers. There are more than a few instances of a magazine staring off with "Volume 01 issue 01" then sometime later adopting "issue only" formatting. It also means you don't have to muck around with creating SQL fields in the database and making it even more difficult to keep track of things a year or two down the line when you decide another change is needed to fix that change.  

You guys are just making things way more difficult than they have to be ..........

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