Re: Inventory class proposal

[Georg Lehner]

Hello!

The Object Server Document says that all objects are stored in the
same database. I hope that this will not be the case.

In our quite simple environment we are planning to have three to four
different computers acting as database servers with different roles
(storing people, storing inventory, storing lab-reports) but the
aplication has to evaluate information from all of them.

Even simpler, what if someone wants an autentication module via LDAP
and the rest of the biz-objects on Postgresql?

Now to Alejandros Proposal.

Although it is a proof of concept thing, we could make it
small-bizable. Some more fields to fiddle around with won't break it
all.

Also I do not see the point in small text fields. Our supported
backends should treat data redundancy efficiently and why restrict us
in the 10GByte Harddisk aera.

I suppose to be proven what my old Clipper Shareware Warehouse
Managment supplies and take from that or make better:

item:
key:    varchar(20)     short description, "human" understandable key
internal_code: varchar(35)      "our" article code
name1:  text
name2:  text
name3:  text
group1: varchar(35)     Article category. I have seen, that Accounting
group2: varchar(35)     Department has peculiar interpretation so I
group3: varchar(35)     provide different grouping categories for
                        ledger, controlling, and ... reserved.

Quantities:

>From problems I had with a 15.3 approach I would suggest to register
in inventory by the smallest unit of the product,measured in
long-integer with fixed-coma notation, say:

qty: longint
decimals: int

decimals is an item attribute (property, field, column...)

        example1: 12.65 kg of gold dust, stored in mg (milligrams)
                would be stored as:

        qty = 12650000
        decimals = 0

        example2 (real):
                bunker-oil for our sterilizer vapor plant burner is
                delivered as 3 decimal fractions of galons:
        qty = 42695437
        decimal = 3
                ==> 42695.437 gal 

If we could use BCD we would be better off, at least when using SI
units and derived: g, l, m, etc. and with decimal fractions. The ones
who like to store in units of 1/16 gal would benefit from a binary
notation for minimizing rounding errors.

Next issue: units. We propose to field in item which refer to a
selection list.

multiplier: -->         
unit:   -->

multiplier_codes:

key:    varchar(10)     `k',`m',`M',`u',`K' - letter(s) which appears
                                              before unit. 
conversion: float (?)   kilo = 1000,
                        milli = 1/1000,
                        mega = 10^6,
                        omicron = 10^-6,
                        Kilo = 1024,        - conversion factor to next
                                              SI unit or unity (1)
comment: text           Well, comment!

unit_codes:

key:    varchar(15)     `m', `g', `gal', `onz', - unit text
comment: text           meter, gram, gallones, ounces (in spanish onzas).

So to describe 3.5 kilometers of aluminium wire gage 00 for a new
high-voltage line we used: multiplier=k, unit=m -> km

This allows us to dispatch our gold dust in kilograms while storing it
in milligrams.

But that's not all on conversion stuff:

Next issue: packages. We propose a package-> code for each item,
packages are defined in a list.

package:
key:    varchar(35)             short name for the package form
comment: text                   epic name for the package
conversion:     longint         How much units of the base unit are
                                kept in the package. The `decimals'
                                field apply. 

What if we sell vine in bottles, but we buy vine in barrels.

We would store it in liters, with three decimals.

instances of package:

key       |comment                     |conversion
barrel    |Full Size Barrel with 45 l  |45000
halfbarrel|Hall Size Barrel with 20 l  |20000
bottle    |standard bottle             |00750
champagne |Champagne bottle            |02000
24 box    |Box with 24 standard bottles|18000
dozen     |Box with 12 standard bottles|09000

etc.

If we buy three "barrel"s gnue stocks 135 l of wine, If we sell 5
"bottle"s we reduce our stock by 3.75 l.

Next Issue(s):

I think that also volume, and weight should be standard with the item.

At each provider the item has a different order number and description
then we use, so we should register them there.

Article numbers are propably missleading, as in some firm on article
number is used for (sligthly) different products, while in others it
is a real unique key.

Question:

Please explain what is "abcType" and "Cycle Count Frequency", and also
the terms "value" and "rotation".

Finally: where will the future discussion be pointed to?

Best Regards,

        Jorge-León