I don't really know much about most other vendors' cms, but this is one of the things I dislike about a number of cms that I've seen (from the outside anyway) ... I just don't see the need for a url like:
http://www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,1674,P 249,00.html ( this is the signiature url-format of Vignette's StoryServer ) when a url like http://www.metlife.com/50598.html should suffice for just about anything, regardless of how much content you have. I could have fifty thousand pages in that site, or I could have fifty-BILLION pages in that site and it wouldn't matter, I could still use a reasonably simple url like this. I can't imagine those long content entry id's in StoryServer and the like help the software do its job quickly or efficiently either... And the really nice thing about using numbers is, not only are they short, but the length of the string only increases at 1/10th the rate of content increase, so the numbers stay small and easy for people to remember or write down or repeat to someone over the phone. As opposed to the 2 minute ordeal I would go through copying down a url like above on paper and double-checking to be sure it's correct. Try giving someone a url like that verbally -- ever worked technical support where you had to give someone a url over the phone so they could download a driver? Usually you're saddled by the requirements of your call center that you can't send anyone email, so copying and pasting the url is out of the question. And even with url's that are much simpler than this you often wind up with users having difficulty hearing or understanding it: http://www.metlife.com/applications/corporate/wps ... .. w - p as in paul - s as in sam ... slash .. c as in cat, d as in dog, a as in apple... PageGenerator ... p as in paul, a as in apple, g as in golf, e as in echo... Ten minutes later they have the url and your average call-time's gone through the roof. God forbid the person is hard of hearing or just plain computer illiterate. </rant> Not that there isn't any place for UUID's ... A place they'd be useful? How about a system where incident or report tickets are input into a central repository but are being generated from multiple individual locations? ... sure... Generate a UUID at the location where the report or incident is created, along with a local numeric identity key. When you import the data from your multiple locations, you take in a location id, a local unique number, and a UUID -- someone searching the central repository can pick out an individual entry by entering a combination of a location id and local unique identifying number, or a UUID, or a unique number generated at the central repository. The UUID is the "official" or cardinal identifier, so if you're not able to retreive data from any of the other identifiers, the UUID is what you fall back on as the authoritative answer / identifier. So when someone at location a calls and says "I need info on ticket #50 for location a", and you can't find the ticket, you ask them for the UUID and if the UUID doesn't exist, then they're just SOL. :) If it does exist, then you can determine if it's mislabelled ( the import mangled the location id or the local identifier ) and fix that problem. S. Isaac Dealey Certified Advanced ColdFusion 5 Developer www.turnkey.to 954-776-0046 > but as a datatype in SQL Server 2000 > wouldn't you imagine that m$ has made > it so that the sql server engines running it > are tuned to perform well with these? > ..tony > Tony Weeg > Senior Web Developer > Information System Design > Navtrak, Inc. > Fleet Management Solutions > www.navtrak.net > 410.548.2337 > -----Original Message----- > From: Zac Spitzer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 1:16 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: UUID's ( maybe OT) > I am probably OT here, but I see so many people using UUID's when > simpler normal numeric keys are better... a classic example for me is > article id's... look at cfcomet for example... the article ids aren't > user friendly, it reminds me of good old lotus notes and we all know how > short urls are better than long one ( email wrapping for example ) > not to mention that your database and CF load is much higher using long > text pk's than with nice short numeric keys and your page size is > increased a lot too.. > just letting off steam..... don't want to create a flame war or anything > z > ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists