I mentioned this once before as part of another discussion, but I'm
creating a new discussion so it can receive the attention it deserves.
The Data Model Resource Book describes entity subtypes. OFBiz implements
entity subtypes by adding a field to the supertype that points to a
*Type entity that contains valid subtypes.
The problem is users (and some developers) do not understand that
pattern, and they add invalid subtypes to the *Type entity. That can
cause things to break. As an example, I have a client who created
additional ProductTypes (that actually represented product categories)
and used those added ProductTypes for their products. Then they were
puzzled why their order fulfillment process stopped working.
I think what we need is an EntitySubtype entity to store the subtype
data. Instead of multiple *Type entities, we would have a single
EntitySubtype entity, and the supertypes will point to it. The supertype
field could be called something like entitySubtypeId. The EntitySubtype
entity will be clearly documented as to its purpose and proper use.
EntitySubtype
-------------
entityName*
entitySubtypeId*
description
What do you think?
-Adrian
