Pattern identification issue

Brimstar

I'm working on mapping out a new set of functionality my company needs in NAV. Most of the aspects in the additional requirements fit into certain patterns easily, but my problems comes from a subset of the data that shapes up to be like master data that has a need for maintaining a revision number and revision history.

Quick explanation:
We have a document that is created by our quality department under specific circumstances. It indicates that when we sell part A to customer B we must do X, Y, and Z. X, Y, and Z are defined as processes 1, 2, and 3 in a code list by our quality department.

The bit of data I'm looking at is how we define those codes, called QC codes currently. Considering I'm calling it a document obviously that's a document pattern with the codes being attached as lines. The codes feel like they should be master data, but they must also be maintained as revisions. Entirely possible the code could be updated but historical documents would still reference the older version. What's the best method for this? Is there another pattern I should be considering?

Gut reaction is that do the main characteristics of the QC code that can't change based on versions using the master data pattern and carefully review what can change and place those fields into the rules pattern for the data that has to have a revision maintained since a combination of the master data and this additional data controls what should appear on the main document treating it like the pricing tables.

Overall I'm still new to the idea of designing a whole new section within NAV, having mostly done minor code adjustments in NAV over the last couple years. Just finished reading Mark's book on this subject and this project seems like a good place to start putting this into practice.

Marije_Brummel

Brimstar,

First of all, thanks for reading the book and your interest in the Patterns.

Patterns are about creating recognisable software. You can have a look at the Sales Header Archive table. This has the document signature but with version numbers.

I will most definately make a note of the versioning pattern and publish it on my blog and possibly the next edition of the book.

Hope this helps.

/Mark

Brimstar

Coming back to this a bit late, but in the process of building this out and was looking over existing structures to find some tables that are closest. I finally realized the document I was trying to build up matches the pattern used for the Bill of Materials almost perfectly. It's a versioned set of rows attached to a single header record that allows for changes over time that is recorded. Any tips or pitfalls for using this type of pattern? Does it have a specific name I could use to look up more information?