Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress Dynamics Repository Reference

Table conventions

Tables in the Repository use the following conventions:

Table names should be unique.
Table names should be meaningful and preferably not abbreviated.
The entire table name cannot exceed 29 characters.
The valid characters for table names are lowercase “a . . z” and the underscore ( _ ).
The first four characters of each table name are a standard prefix, constructed as follows:
The first two characters designate the general purpose of the table. There are currently two valid designations, as described in Table 1–1.

Table 1–1: Table purpose codes 

Designation	Description
gs	System data that controls the environment, such as objects, menu items, messages, managers, services, and flows. Or: Application data, such as users, security, auditing, profiles, categories, and comments.
ry	Repository data, such as objects, attributes, links, pages, bands, and actions.

The third character designates the general type of information stored in the table. Table 1–2 describes the valid designations.

Table 1–2: Table information codes 

Designation	Description
c	Static control and parameter information.
m	Master information that is likely to change.
r	Raw data, unformatted and unprocessed.
t	Transaction information.

The fourth character is an underscore ( _ ).
Each table has a unique acronym called the FLA. The FLA is the table name’s three-character prefix and two mnemonic characters for the rest of the table name. For example, the FLA for the gsm_user table is gsmus. The FLA can be used as a substitute for the full table name in your code. The Progress Dynamics framework also supports the use of the eight-character table dump name for this purpose.
Each table should have a field whose name is the table name, without its prefix, and the suffix, “_obj”. For example, the gsm_user table has a field named user_obj. Unless the table has no child table, this field should be the primary key for the table. The field has a domain of “o_obj” and is never displayed to users. It is used primarily for relationships between tables.