Re: Oracle direction on triggers

On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, nospam_at_noway.nohow wrote:
> We have a developing situation I'd like some feedback on.
>
> A few months ago a new application went to production, using an Oracle
> 8.1.7 db on Win2k. This app is partly purchased product, partly
> custom code. Recently, another app, running on DB2 on the mainframe,
> needed to have a copy of the data on one of the tables in this system.
> We settled on using a trigger and the OTG to keep a DB2 table
> populated with changes from the Oracle table. The lead analyst on the
> Oracle app got upset over this approach, claiming it would wreck
> performance.

If the work needs to be done at the time the modification is done, then a trigger is a good choice. That work's time will need to be spent no matter who's doing the work. A trigger will mean that no separate call will need to be executed by some process. If it can be done offline, like it looks like it can from the rest of the thread, then a trigger probably isn't a great choice. I'd opt for non-hidden code when possible.

A trigger can be a pain for developers not of the database ilk but still expecting the database operations to do what they code them to do. All of the sudden, answers are different and they don't realize they should look at triggers for the behaviour. They search and search their code and never find the problem. Of course, this is also a sign that the dissemination of information from the database team could be lacking.

> He further stated that "Oracle apps have set a direction of moving
> away from the use of triggers because of performace." Since I don't
> keep up with Oracle Apps (we have none here) I couldn't refute it, but
> it sure sounded specious to me.

If he is one that defends himself well when you say he's wrong, I'd point blank say, "I've never heard that statement. Can you please point me to where you read this? It certainly has never been stated for the Oracle database server so I don't know why it would have been stated for Oracle apps. Please, if this is the case, I'd really like to read everything about it. It could affect future database implementations."

Makes it sound like you really want to learn from this "guru" and are very interested about this new direction but really you want to show that he won't be able to produce the documentation. Then, when he doesn't produce it, don't let it go. Ask again.

-- 
Galen deForest Boyer
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.