[Typo3-dev] I don't want to fork!

[Elmar Hinz]

David Bruehlmeier wrote:
> 
> interesting discussion and very similar to thoughts I've had for some 
> time. I think a good solution might be to have a central table for all 
> (business-) partners, may it be real persons or organisations. This 
> table holds all attributes like address, birthdate, contact-information, 
> legal status, etc. Additionally, this table can hold references to other 
> tables (like fe_users, be_users, more?). A sync mechanism makes sure 
> that the redundant data (e.g. the e-mail address in fe_users) is kept 
> consistent (for backwards compatibility).
> 
> If you agree this is a valuable solution, I'm very happy because it is 
> exactly what my extension 'partner' offers 
> (http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/partner/)! :-) The 
> current version has the sync-mechanism to fe_users still built in, but 
> I'm currently moving the sync-part into a new extension, because I want 
> the extension to be modular. The new sync-extension also includes a 
> mechanism to sync with tt_address.
> 
> <promotional>
> On top of that, the extension can also handle relationships between 
> partners, so you can for instance build families or groups (e.g. a club 
> structure). Each partner can have an unlimited number of 
> contact-information (such as e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc.). And 
> the data model is based on the xCIL/xCRL standards from OASIS so it 
> should be fairly easy to exchange data with other partner-management tools.
> </promotional>
> 
> I have recently been playing with the thought of trying to get a group 
> of extension developers together who currently offer extensions with a 
> similar focus with the goal of creating a future for tt_address. This 
> new tt_address should IMO be based on the thoughts layed out above 
> (central storage for common partner-attributes, syncing with dependant 
> tables for backwards compatibility). It might be a nice project for 
> TYPO3 5.0.
> 
> What to you think?
> - Dave.
> 

Hello Dave,

maybe I don't understand you right. The discussion started because of 
the incompatibilities between extesnsions that two address tables cause, 
fe_user and tt_address. Now you propose to establish a *third* address 
table? Is that right?

Why don't you put your partners into tt_address and connect them to an 
account of fe_users where needed, like Peter proposes, or directly into 
an extended fe_users table with only additional addresses (delivery 
etc.) in tt_address, like Joey and me propose? To mark them as a special 
type "business partners" you could do this with a fe_user group.

That does not necessarily means that this group needs any access to 
non-public pages. But with it you can offer non-public pages specially 
for your business partners.

Elmar



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