Thanks for the reply, that's pretty much what I was thinking. There is user interaction in creating a new part, they select the table and input a digikey part number and my app does the rest. So luckily all my app has to do is given them a drop down list of available tables and an option to create one if the class of parts they're attempting to add doesn't mesh with whats in there currently.
Also, Altium was intentionally designed in such a way as to work with external sources into the DB mainly for accounting software/inventory people who need to plug in. That aspect of things hopefully won't blow up on my at some point during this process. I know this probably isn't exactly a "common" problem, but are there any recommendations on a place to put my solution other than here once I have one worked out? Thanks, Matthias Welsh On Mar 30, 8:06 am, john2095 <john...@pobox.com> wrote: > Not impossible at all. Just a lot of work :-) > > You'd have to build and maintain a little model generator script to > detect a new table, determine its schema, and generate the models. > Then what? Your application detects new models appearing and can > autonomously decide what to do with each one? Sounds difficult (ie: > expensive) to build because those bits would need to be entirely > abstract. > > Django can handle being told what the names of the tables are (class > Meta deb_table = <tablename>) no problem. But given, the scope and > dynamism of your described problem, it does sound like you'll be > working against the grain: Any ORM, a db abstraction, does like to > assume ownership of the underlying db, and it will typically resist > outsiders seeking to dictate its internal affairs. > > On Mar 30, 8:48 am, Matthias <thecodebend...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > I'm relatively new to the Django world and I'm just starting on a new > > project that may be right up the frameworks ally. But there's one > > thing I'm a little iffy on after reading the documentation. > > > I'm attempting to write an app that will allow for management of a > > "parts" database that will allow for parts to be added with a couple > > auto-generation features. The parts database I wish to edit is > > maintained by a separate program called Altium, so the structure of > > the database is pretty rigid, and the way it's set up is it creates > > Tables for classes of parts (so all capacitors that are of size 0805 > > will be found in the table, CAPS_0805). These tables are frequently > > created as we run across a new class of part. So the names of the > > tables that this app would be editing are far from static. It would > > appear using the Models system of Django the tables which I could > > setup all of Djangos magic on are pretty rigidly named (aka, I can't > > just use some variable name to represent the table). > > > The only solution I see right off to this would be to create a chron > > job that would edit the models file for me after checking the database > > (automatically creating models for each of the tables). I feel like > > this is a hack to something that shouldn't really need one. Also, > > then I think I would have to use dictionaries if I wanted to treat the > > table names as variables in the program which looks ugly. (The user > > will for example select which table the part needs to go in from a > > drop down menu). > > > Any insight here would be much appreciated. > > > Thanks, > > Matthias Welsh. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en.
