[jira] Commented: (OFBIZ-1332) Move extension field from PartyContactMech to TelecomNumber

["Cameron Smith (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-1332?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#action_12533653 ] 

Cameron Smith commented on OFBIZ-1332:
--------------------------------------

Hi David and Si.  I was the one who originally proposed this, in a discussion with Si.   I have to say I think the book (which I have and pore over regularly) is wrong here.  It does not actually discuss or justify putting extension here, it just shows it in the diagram.

I think David's justification is reasonable, except for two points:
 a. extension is a field specific to one subtype of ContactMech (TelecomNumber).
 b. to be consistent with the placement of extension, "askForName" should also held at the level of PartyContactMech and not TelecomNumber as currently.  In fact there is almost more justification for this because it maps to the more general concept of "ATT: John Smith" which people use on Postal Addresses, emails and Faxes

I would also make the point that, because of this, services like updateTelecomNumber would, IMHO, be better off not existing.  They just clutter up the service reference screen, and take as much code to call as, for instance, doing the update by hand via the Entity Engine.  So they add no value above the Entity Engine which is already easy to use and produces (almost) self-documenting code.  Now a "business level" service such as "updatePhone" (which updated all the relevant fields in PartyContactMech, ContactMech and TelecomNumber for instance), would be another matter.  It would roughly correspond to one system-side action in a business level use case (see Alistair Cockburn's excellent book on Use Cases).   A good example of such a "business level" service would be postAcctgTrans.

Now, I think every project needs a benevolent dictator, and I think David's policy of following the Silverston book is good as a general rule.  However in practice, every time we have used the Data Model for a real-world scenario, we have had to extend and adjust it - not a lot, but some!!  At the end of the day, Mr. Silverston is an IT guy, not an accountant or logistics specialist, and sometimes it shows.

Anyway, I know my opinions are not shared by the majority of OFBizians, which is why I don't talk on the ML anymore, although I still read it.   I think OFBiz is great, but the only products I have sold based on it, have required customization of the Data Model, so I can't contribute anything back, and I do not have the time to spend on lengthy discussions with core committers to justify them.

> Move extension field from PartyContactMech to TelecomNumber
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFBIZ-1332
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-1332
>             Project: OFBiz
>          Issue Type: Bug
>            Reporter: Si Chen
>            Assignee: David E. Jones
>            Priority: Minor
>
> It seems that the extension of a phone number is on PartyContactMech when it should be on TelecomNumber.  We propose that we move it to TelecomNumber and change the related services, etc.

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