Naming Conventions and the Enforce Strict Naming Feature

Naming conventions are essential as they make development easier, and a standardized set of naming conventions allows other application developers to understand behaviors and configuration. Additionally, naming conventions reduce the number of list box options in DSP® by limiting the objects associated with any given page. At the WebApp level, if the Enforce Strict Naming checkbox is enabled on the Naming Options tab on the Vertical View of the WebApps page, the DSP® filters applicable list boxes based on the naming conventions. If an object is not named using these standards, the object will not display in list boxes in the DSP.

The DSP is delivered with a BOA pre-defined naming convention for stored procedures and Horizontal, Vertical, Validation and Control Views, to name a few. The defined naming conventions can be set at

• The platform level on the Vertical View of the Parameters page on the Naming Conventions tab. These values are the default values for WebApps.
  
  
  
• The WebApp level which can be updated on the Vertical View of the WebApps page. Naming conventions entered at the WebApp level override those set at the platform level.
  
  

NOTE: Views in the underlying database must be named with the associated table name from the page registration.

For example, a WebApp has a page using the nwEmployee table. With Enforce Strict Naming enabled, all views registered to this page must contain the word Employee within the name of the view and with the proper naming convention prefix and suffix. For a Horizontal View, web is the prefix and Hor is the suffix. For a Vertical page, web is the prefix and Ver is the suffix.

The default Table Prefix Size is 2 for the WebApp and indicates the first two characters (prefix) are for registration purposes and are not included as part of the table name for consideration with Enforce Strict Naming. For example, the tables in Northwind are prefixed with nw, xt or zt. The nw is ignored when filtering any views based for a page where the nwEmployee table is registered.

If, when selecting a view from a list box, the needed view is not available, check the Naming Conventions tab for the active WebApp and compare it to the table and view names for that page.

Table Naming Conventions

Across the applications, a common naming convention is to name a table with the singular form of the underlying data. For instance, if the table is meant to store a data set representing customers, name the table “ttCustomer.” The tt prefixes commonly attached to the table name represents expected user data. A “zt” prefix represents application configuration data, This allows developers to quickly identify and filter tables to learn and develop the application further.

When naming tables:

• Consistently name tables with small data prefix (2 characters) followed by a descriptive name of the contents of the table.

• Capitalize the first letter of each word, if multiple words are used in the table name, e.g., OrderDetail.

• Do not abbreviate.

• Use singular table names.

• Do not use hyphens (“-“), spaces or slashes (“/”, “\”) in the table name. Underscores are acceptable.

NOTE:   Special characters in SQL Object names will break functionality in DSP®.

The following table outlines the basic table naming conventions:

View and Stored Procedure Naming Conventions

Views have different sets of naming conventions. The default naming conventions display on the WebApps page’s Vertical View on the Naming Conventions tab. When naming views, follow these conventions.

By default, view names start with web* which allows a developer reviewing/debugging SQL to differentiate between table/view queries. Views must also include the relevant table name after the “web” to denote which base record set the view operates against if the target WebApp has the Enforce Strict Naming option enabled. The view may also contain a brief (one or two word) description of the view’s selection criteria. For instance, if a customer is “Inactive,” the view may start with “webCustomer_Inactive.”

Lastly, view names are suffixed with an operation abbreviation for their associated usage. For application development, a list of these can be found on the Vertical View of the WebApps page. Other non-enforced naming conventions that are commonly used are “Sel” (to indicate it is selecting a subset of data) and “Count” (to indicate it is selecting some aggregate or metric data based on the primary table). Underscores can be used to increase readability of the view name.  For example, the full named view “webCustomer_NameStartsWithLetterASel” returns a record set of all customers with names starting with “A.”

Procedures have similar naming conventions, but suffix with Upd (for update), Del (for delete), and Ins (for insert logic).