Field Selectable in Dictionary Table

rbuser

Hi there,

Im using RB7 Ent for D6 Ent.

I have noticed that in your sample dictionary tables for MS_SQL the
Selectable, Searchable, Mandatory etc fields are stored as Char(1). T or F

I have used the dictionary fine using this scheme.

However, my database team is not satisfied with a boolean value being
represented in a single char field when they have a bit field for this
purpose.

I changed my tables to use a bit field for the boolean fields. I can see the
tables and fields fine when in the dictionary editor, but when I am on the
data tab of the report designer the the fields do not show up when I am
trying to define new data.

Changing back to Char(1) works fine.

Question:

How can I make the designer work with a bit field for Selectable Sortable
etc ?

It seems unreasonable that I am forced to store a boolean value as a char(1)
in my database.

Cheers,
Ben

digitalmetaphors

The data dictionary does this because it has to support many databases
vendors. Most don't support a boolean field type. You can see in
TppDataDictionary.CreateFields in ppDsgnDB.pas that the calls to
ppStringFieldValueToBoolean return False. If you really want to use a
different field type, then you'll have to modify the source and then every
time we have a new release of RB, then you'll have to modify that version as
well. This is not recommended. We recommend using Char(1).


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors