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I created a plugin table with a text column using the IPluginDatabase interface.  FogBugz creates text columns as ntext types in SQL Server 2005.  I then try to use that column in the where clause of a query using the generic database access functions.  The problem is that the ntext type in SQL Server only supports the following functions:

DATALENGTH
READTEXT
SET TEXTSIZE
SUBSTRING
UPDATETEXT
TEXTPTR
WRITETEXT
TEXTVALID

so I can't do something like "WHERE myColumn = 'abcd'" in my where clause.  Unfortunately, FogBugz is parsing the query string and won't let me use any of the above functions.  Thus it appears that it's basically impossible to do anything with a FogBugz plugin text column in SqlServer 2005 other than retrieve it.  What am I missing?

Yes, currently that is the case.  We restrict the functions that can be called for two reasons:

1) Security - we have to use a whitelist here because there are too many ways to do damage otherwise
2) Cross-platform support - we currently restrict plugins to only those functions that are identical across all supported databases (MySQL, MSSQL, Access/Jet)

Eventually we want to add a query rewriter that will convert, for example, DATALENGTH to CHARACTER_LENGTH in MySQL.  We just haven't gotten to it yet.

Thanks David.  I originally wanted to do an attribute table that holds name/value pairs.  I suppose I could just use integer constants for my attribute names but that's obviously not ideal.  Using an integer constant is still more preferable than adding a fixed column for each possible attribute out of a very broad set.

You can't use a variable-width (varchar) column?  They can be up to 256 characters long.

Would that be added with CTable.addVarcharColumn?  I didn't see that previously.  I'll give it a try.

Thanks,

Brian

Doh!  I also missed the fact that a CPluginKeyValueTable interface already exists.  Don't you just hate that feeling you get when you realize how much time you've wasted reinventing the wheel?

Ah, sorry, I should have pointed that out sooner.  Yes, we provide a simple key-value table for your convenience :)