Next Number Generation Activity to use Base36 without I, O, Q

Question

Hi all,
Need to have a Next Number Activity Hook to generate a sequence number similar to a base 36 with the exception of letters that could be confused with numbers: I, O, Q.
I have an activity hook created that generates the number I want to use without any problems at all.
Example:
16 = 000G
17 = 000H
18 = 000J <- Skips the letter I
19 = 000K
20 = 000L
But when putting the this into the inData object to be returned it is ignored.
inData.put("CURRENT_SEQUENCE", finalValue);
Any thoughts as a way I can get this to work?
Thanks,
Mike

Answer 1

Ok I finally had some time to work on this.
Within Next Number Maintenance if the Number Base is set to 34 it does exclude I and O (good), but stops at W (bad). No X, Y, or Z (bad). Plus it still includes Q (bad).
i.e.
TEST-000U
TEST-000V
TEST-000W
TEST-0010
TEST-0011
If the Number Base is set to 33, I, O, and Q are included (bad) and it also stops at W (bad).
Neither are acceptable solutions. So...
I have figured out an ugly workaround:
In Next Number Maintenance set Number Base to 36.
Then insert the invalid SFC numbers into the ID_USED table.
i.e.
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-000I,S', '1000', 'TEST-000I', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-000O,S', '1000', 'TEST-000O', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-000Q,S', '1000', 'TEST-000Q', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-001I,S', '1000', 'TEST-001I', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-001O,S', '1000', 'TEST-001O', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
INSERT INTO ID_USED (HANDLE, SITE, ID, ID_TYPE, CREATE_DATE, ARCHIVED) VALUES ('IDUsedBO:1000,TEST-001Q,S', '1000', 'TEST-001Q', 'S', TO_DATE('05/04/2010','MM/DD/YYYY'), 'false');
Unfortunately this will need to be done for all of the potentially bad SFC's. I will defiantly need to write a small app for that.
Then when the Next Number is called for the SFC, the system would notice that that number is already used and jump to the next available number.
Also by using the ID_USED table should anyone want reports there would not be any bogus SFC data in the system.
This work exactly as I want on our test server.
So before I truly implement this on our Production server does anyone see any potential downfalls to this workaround? Questions and/or comments welcome.
Thanks,
Mike