Log in Register FAQ Memberlist Search ContactReview Forum Index
A GoldMine Discussion and Support Community

ContactReview Forum Index » GoldMine 7 (Corporate Edition) » Change field length of Contact1.Company
Post new topic  Reply to topic View previous topic :: View next topic 
Change field length of Contact1.Company
PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 4:56 pm Points: 0 Reply with quote
Shellie950
n00b
Joined: 05 Aug 2009
Posts: 1




Currently contact1.company is set to varchar(40).
Has anyone increase the length of this field? Has or would it create any problems?

Thanks!
View user's profile Send private message

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:41 pm Points: 0 Reply with quote
BobTaylor
GoldBox Guru
Joined: 07 Sep 2007
Posts: 1216
Location: Jacksonville, FL




I have always avoided doing it, because (in the old days) the lengthening would be undone by rebuilds and/or updates to GoldMine. Don't know if that's still true or not, but I avoid it anyway. I do think that FR should lengthen it, though; maybe to 60.

_________________
Bob Taylor
Bob Taylor Consulting
(904)646-9861
www.goldboxbob.com
Consulting with GoldBox and GoldMine since 1997.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:46 pm Points: 0 Reply with quote
DougCastell
GoldMine Guru
Joined: 15 Jun 2006
Posts: 1639
Location: Los Angeles, CA




If you modify the length of any field with a U_field (like U_COMPANY) be sure to also lengthen it's U_ field.

And what bob says is true - don't expect to ever use the database maintenance tool in GoldMine on the contact1 table again. And watch out if an upgrade ever does come down that does lengthen that field (say to 50 characters) as it could potentially truncate your data as part of the upgrade.

_________________
Doug Castell

GoldMine Sales and Support:
http://www.castellcomputers.com/
office: (310)601-4738
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger ICQ Number

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:38 am Points: 0 Reply with quote
ronanc
GoldMine Veteran
Joined: 10 Sep 2007
Posts: 723




If you need more space for the company name then the best thing to do is to create a custom field, say contact2.ucompany, and replace the existing company field with the custom field. You could then run a global replace to populate the new field with the existing company data, and have a lookup.ini to populate the contact1.company field with any entry from contact2.ucompany, in case you ever want to revert to contact1.company again in the future.

The main problem with doing this is that the &company macro which is used in templates will no longer work, nor will any template macro which incorporates the company name.

Im not 100% sure as I havent used 7 in quite a while, but I dont believe its as easy to search on contact2 fields, so that may be a problem. Not a problem with PE tho if you are considering an upgrade.

I would echo what Bob and Doug have said and would not recommend extending the length of contact1.company, as you may have problems when a maintenance/upgrade is run. I suppose tho were you to extend the length of contact1.company, you could always have a custom field autopopulating in the background with the company data via lookup.ini, meaning if you were to run a maintenance/upgrade and the contact1.company field was to revert to 40 characters again, you could always reset the length and copy the data back in from the custom field. Tedious if you maintain a lot, but doable nonetheless!
View user's profile Send private message

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:59 am Points: 0 Reply with quote
DJ
GoldMine Guru
Joined: 29 Jun 2006
Posts: 2055
Location: Fitchburg, MA, USA




Naturally, you could always use trim(Contact2.uCompany) in place of the &Company macro in your templates.

As well, you could use the Lookup.ini to populate the Company/U_Company fields from the Contact2.uCompany field.

_________________
DJ Hunt

Phone: (978)342-3333
Email: DJ@DJHunt.US

GoldMine Premium - The Defintive Guide
One-on-One GoldMine Technical Support ( Fee Based )
www.DJHunt.US
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger ICQ Number

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:00 am Points: 0 Reply with quote
bgannett
GoldMine Guru
Joined: 07 Sep 2007
Posts: 1820
Location: Pacific NorthWest




In summary, never change the structure of the Contact1 fields. You can create a longer User Defined Field (in Contact2 table) and, after following the above suggestions, maintain GoldMine's full functionality.

_________________
Bob Gannett
253-627-2244
goldsupport@harbornet.com
*** Providing AFFORDABLE GoldMine Supportsince 1990
View user's profile Send private message

Change field length of Contact1.Company
  ContactReview Forum Index » GoldMine 7 (Corporate Edition)
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
All times are GMT - 7 Hours  
Page 1 of 1  

  
  
 Post new topic  Reply to topic  


Brought to you by Castell Computers, Doug Castell, Admin
RSS Feed
Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group
Theme created by Vjacheslav Trushkin