| 7 | | * One of the easiest solutions is to store the list as a string with comma-separated values, which in the current case is natural, as the items in question are strings, that do not contain any comma characters. One pitfall is that annotations of type `Type.STRING` ate limited to 255 characters, which may impose an undesired limit on the number of items, that may be contained in the list. Although an extract source item normally contains 9 characters (7 in the case name + dot + specimen tube number or "`r`" or "`d`"), and the number of items on each start plate is <= 24, the maximal list string size would be 9 * 24 + 23 separator commas = 239 characters. This is too close to the 255 limit, to feel comfortable, bearing in mind that future requirements may increase the size of the data, that needs to be stored. The list string should therefore be stored as a annotation of type `Type.TEXT`, that allows considerably more data. In order to simplify storing and retrieval of the list values, methods for making the conversion to and from a comma-separated list string should be added in utility classes. |
| | 7 | * One of the easiest solutions is to store the list as a string with comma-separated values, which in the current case is natural, as the items in question are strings, that do not contain any comma characters. One pitfall is that annotations of type `Type.STRING` ate limited to 255 characters, which may impose an undesired limit on the number of items, that may be contained in the list. An extract source item normally contains 9 characters (7 in the case name + dot + specimen tube number or "`r`" or "`d`"), and the number of items on each start plate is <= 24, so the maximal list string size would be 9 * 24 + 23 separator commas = 239 characters. This is too close to the 255 limit, to feel comfortable, bearing in mind that future requirements may increase the size of the data, that needs to be stored. The list string should therefore be stored as a annotation of type `Type.TEXT`, that allows considerably more data. In order to simplify storing and retrieval of the list values, methods for making the conversion to and from a comma-separated list string should be added in utility classes. |
