I admit that I cannot see under which forum I should ask this question. I have posted it under this forum as the question I have is customer related and therefore could be something that someone else has encountered under SD.
So I'm apologizing in advance if this is not the place. Advice on which would be the best place would therefore be appreciated.
The problem:
We use Classifications from Cross Application Components to build classifications for Customers. It's fairly simple. The Customer Classification exists as a Class. The Class has various Characteristics created against it. Any one of the Characteristics could have a number of Characteristic Values. And against each of these Values a number of Customers is assigned.
In a simple example a Characteristic might be defined as 'Major Customers'. That characteristic might have Values such as Northern Region, Southern Region, Western Region and Eastern Region. Against each of these Values is assigned appropriate Customers.
The database records have appropriate keys. We use these keys externally in communication with Partners. We have found that when these Values are sorted or deleted, or new entries added, that the database keys change. This means that the customers previously identified using one key are now looking at a completely different set of customers on the Partner systems.
What I'd like to know is if there is any way that the database keys can be made to remain stable, despite sorting, deletion and insertion of new entries.