Custom Primary Keys

[Howard Schlossberg]

On the setup screen where we specify primary keys in 2.6, there is a column labeled "Custom PK" that accepts a SQL statement.  The help button for that column doesn't do anything and I was unable to find anything in your documentation.

I'm thinking of using it to specify "SELECT xp_AssetID + '.US' FROM Assets" so that the primary key going from the spoke to the hub has the particular spoke's user code appended.  Is this what the function does?  And then when it if it comes back to the spoke it is just the original xp_AssetID (without the appended code)?

 

Howard

[Jesse Barnum]

I assume this is for a non-FileMaker database, right? I don't think that checkbox appears for FileMaker.

The original reason for this checkbox was to run a stored procedure / trigger in the SQL database that is responsible for generating the primary key. That value would then be stored into whatever column is indicated as the primary key.

I don't recommend it for the purpose you're proposing. I would recommend using either an incremental serial number, and specifying MirrorSync-managed keys, or using a UUID and specifying developer-managed keys. You can certainly give it a shot on a test database to see what happens, but I can tell you for sure (if you select developer-managed keys) that the primary key will be the same in both directions - it will not add or drop the prefix depending on which way it's going.