Hi,
Indeed, this column is not used at the moment. However, the plan is to use it to allow the merchant to provide another name for a shipping method so that the alias can be used on the shipping methods listing, in order to know which method is for what purpose, and the main name can be used everywhere else.
So I would discourage using this column.
I would rather recommend adding a new column to the hikashop_shipping table.
That's what we do in many plugins when we need to add extra information to tables, specific to a plugin in particular.
For example, in the "reminder" plugin we have this code:
Code:
public function __construct( $config = array() ) {
parent::__construct($config);
$this->db = JFactory::getDBO();
// extra code
}
// to be called during the installation process, or the first time the plugin is being used
private function initDB() {
$this->addColumn('cart', 'cart_reminded', '`cart_reminded` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT \'0\'');
$this->addColumn('order', 'order_reminded', '`order_reminded` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT \'0\'');
// extra code
}
private function addColumn($table, $column, $type) {
$tablename = '#__hikashop_'.$table;
if(!HIKASHOP_J30) {
$columnsTable = $this->db->getTableFields($tablename);
$columns = reset($columnsTable);
} else {
$columns = $this->db->getTableColumns($tablename);
}
if(!isset($columns[$column])) {
$databaseHelper = hikashop_get('helper.database');
$databaseHelper->addColumns($table, $type);
}
}
public function onHikashopBeforeCheckDB(&$createTable, &$custom_fields, &$structure, &$helper) {
$structure['#__hikashop_cart']['cart_reminded'] = '`cart_reminded` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT \'0\'';
$structure['#__hikashop_order']['order_reminded'] = '`order_reminded` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT \'0\'';
}
so that the plugin can add a column to the hikashop_cart table and a column to the hikashop_order table.
What's great with this is that it also supports the "check database" button of the HikaShop configuration.
