Re: Database Design - Handling Dynamically created products

On Fri, 6 Mar 1998 09:40:52 -0600, "Mauricio Zamora" <mzamora_at_telution.com> wrote:

<SNIP>

>
>Now here is what we are trying to accomplish:
>A. Quick turnaround for defining new products. Ideally on the fly
>B. High integrity of data
>C. High flexibility to product definers
>D. Handle infinite number of products with minimal change to database tables

These are excellent goals. A good design should make it unnecessary to ever change the database to accomodate any new product.

>
>Here are some of our ideas :
>A. Everytime a new product is created, create the appropriate tables for
>the new product.
>+ Data integrity is high
>+ Applications accessing data is straight forward
>- Turnaround for creating a new product is low
>- Modification database during production is high

This is something do discuss with your DBA. This would wreak havoc with administration and performance. Not to mention the difficulty it would create in coding.

< OTHER CHOICES SNIPPED >

You should really consider engaging the services of a consultant that specializes in data modeling. This will go a long ways in helping you to develop a powerful and flexible system.

If no one in house has the expertise to translate a data model to a database design, you may want to get a consultant to assist with that as well.

I guarantee, it will be a valuable learning experience for you.

Jared Still
Certified Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist ;) Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon jkstill_at_bcbso.com
jkstill_at_teleport.com Received on Sun Mar 08 1998 - 00:00:00 CST