Generating a Business Key

Individual objects in Valuemation are assigned a unique key for the purpose of business-related identification. Although this attribute is generally referred to as 'business key', in the editors it is usually called '___ No.', for example 'Incident No.', 'System No.' or 'Contract No.'.

The format and default values of the business key are predefined for each object type on the 'Business Key' tab of the 'Object Type Customizer'.

Business identification is kept separate from the internal, strictly unique database identification of objects and thus can be used in a manner which fits user-specific business processes. The 'Generate Key' action is provided to aid easy and consistent creation of business keys.

For example:

When a contract is created in Valuemation, action 'Generate Key' can be used to generate its 'Contract No.':

1. In the 'Contract No.' field, specify a suitable prefix, e.g. 'SWC-' for "software contracts"
2. Click the 'generate Key' button at the bottom of the 'New: Contract' editor. A five-digit number sequence is added to the prefix. If this is the first software contract, the result will be 'SWC-00000'.
3. To create another software contract, use the 'SWC-' prefix and the 'Generate Key' function again. The result will be 'SWC-00001'.
4. To create a new contract of another type (e.g. "hardware"), specify a different prefix (e.g. 'HWC-') and use the 'Generate Key' function. The result will be 'HWC-00000'.

This way uniqueness of 'Contract No.' values is ensured while still allowing for custom inputs.

You can also enter 'Contract No.' manually. Note that the application does not check for its uniqueness. If the logic of your contracting processes requires duplicate values, they can be entered. If duplicates are undesirable, make sure that the 'Generate Key' function is used.