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Multiple song titles
#5
A thought from other database environments: Allow a song (database record) to have multiple values in the primary Title field, via delimiters, then abstract those at the view level so they appear as different virtual DB records but a click always goes to the one real record. I can imagine this could get complex if the Title field value is the primary key -- how to know which of its multiple values is the real key?

This seems to be how my fave media manager JRiver Media Center works, though not on a Title. In other fields that are specified as multi-value I can, say, enter any number of keywords/tags, then open a view grouped by tags, and each database record appears as many places as it has tag values, but opening/editing is always the same physical record.

But at this point, surgery on the primary Title field might not be feasible. So, another method I've used is to have a second standard field that is an "alias" shadow of the primary field, perhaps called Alternate Titles or Title Aliases, that allows multiple delimited text values. This avoids messing with the primary field. Then have (or perhaps allow) a view/list to show the values from both fields as if they are the same virtual field, the rows of a view/list Title column populated from both fields, creating virtual display-only records that all point to the same real record. The trick is to have any click on any virtual record always view/open the one and only real record.

(I remember Chris Codd always lecturing that primary keys should never be real data, just permanent record numbers that never change. Of course he was focused on multi-table relational database design, but virtual views have some of the same challenges.)
-- John

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Messages In This Thread
Multiple song titles - by AndyL - 04-26-2016, 02:20 AM
RE: Multiple song titles - by BRX - 04-26-2016, 06:39 AM
RE: Multiple song titles - by Harper - 04-26-2016, 07:04 AM
RE: Multiple song titles - by Zubersoft - 04-26-2016, 03:05 PM
RE: Multiple song titles - by musichawk - 06-19-2016, 08:15 AM



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