General

Re: Codeless and dataconnection-less random number generator challenge + now()

s3ttt — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:55:49 GMT

Creating a unique key isn't so much the impossible challenge. The fact that basic and short identifiers are even a challenge is annoying. Form numbers are simple, succinct, and not distracting. It'd be nice to be able to make them without slowing down performance or requiring huge file names.

Re: Codeless and dataconnection-less random number generator challenge + now()

ErnestoM — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:14:39 GMT

I think there is a simpler way to get a unique key. How about concat(username, " - ", now())? It's pretty difficult for the same user to submit two forms within the same second, so I think this should be unique, and you wouldn't need to resort to custom code to generate a more complex random number or a GUID.

Codeless and dataconnection-less random number generator challenge + now()

s3ttt — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:46:45 GMT

Here was my formula to generate a random number.

Step 1: number(concat(substring(string(today()), 6, 2), substring(string(today()), 9, 2)))

This formula will return the month and day so 3-06-2012 is returned as a number (not a date) as 306.

Step 2: string-length(CreatedBy) * Step 1

This formula multipled the previous monthday number by the number of characters in someone's name.

By limiting the result to 3 characters I sort of get a random number. By then concatenating this with now(), I can ensure that the form name is never duplicated by just using now.

How can I improve Step 1 or Step 2 so that the number is even more random. Right now if the same user on the same day creates a form their form number will be the same for that date?