Re: How to capture context from a database link?

Galen Boyer <galenboyer_at_hotpop.com> wrote in message news:<ullgaoq2c.fsf_at_standardandpoors.com>...

> First things first. This is wrong design. You are putting
> intelligence in keys. A definitely bad thing to do. The domain
> needs to be an attribute on the table being inserted.

No, not an intelligent key, just a way to guarantee uniqueness when combining sequence-generated numbers from multiple databases. I would maintain that a key is not 'intelligent' unless some smartass developer (or designer) tries to use it as such.

There have been a number of ideological points made in this thread, so let me expand a little: we are implementing a messaging architecture as the backbone of an enterprisewide BI effort. This application (and a number of others in-house) will aggregate 'pointers' to the actual data for when someone wants to drill down or as a basis for aggregating into (yet) a(nother) data mart. We are a multinational firm, often running the identical application in different locations, on identically configured databases in each location. Many of these apps are third-party packages and I do not have the latitude to change their schemas. Even our marts tend to be segregated; otherwise I would borrow PK's from there.

At any rate, with a deadline approaching I decided to punt and made a large 'union' to satisfy this requirement. It's still a problem I will need to solve, so perhaps I will have to take one of the suggestions and force a design change to track the geographic location

Thank you to all who responded. When/if I solve this problem I will post the solution.

Kind regards,
jh Received on Fri Aug 20 2004 - 13:25:39 CDT