Re: Database Foreign key constraints vs Application Maintained Constra

From: Jared Still <jkstill_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:34:59 -0700
Message-ID: <bf46380904231034x45d02249kdbc117adc7dbddb0_at_mail.gmail.com>



On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:32 AM, peter bell <bellpk_at_hotmail.com> wrote:

> It seems that our business want to give more freedom to development teams
> that do not necessarily understand databases, so I fear that this kind of
> thing will occur at some point.
>

A developer that is responsible for developing applications that use data in a database, but yet does not understand how an RDBMS works, is a poor developer indeed.

I realize this statement is of absolutely no help , unless of course it helps motivate someone, somewhere, to get their developers some database education.

Do you want a mechanic working on your new car if he know all about carburetors, but nothing about fuel injection? (Yes, I know I am preaching to the choir here )

It seems that auto mechanics have better training than application developers.

> And I think the prime motivation for breaking the schema up / removing fk's
> is to allow teams to develop / test and deploy their apps more easily (java
> guys seem to view database change management as 'hard').
>

This reminds of the time long ago when I found the schema I had created for a developer suddenly had all the FK constraints disabled.

I re-enabled them, and took away his privileges to change it.

Shortly thereafter, he was complaining that his app no longer worked.

He had to fix the app.

Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

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Received on Thu Apr 23 2009 - 12:34:59 CDT

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