Re: Corporate Acceptance of Creating Views ?

From: Galen Boyer <galenboyer_at_hotpop.com>
Date: 1 Nov 2001 08:22:02 -0600
Message-ID: <usnbyfltk.fsf_at_verizon.net>


[Quoted] On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, alanshein_at_erols.com wrote:

[Quoted] > First, let me say that I consider you to be the planet's
[Quoted] > leading expert on almost everything Oracle. Your Wrox "Expert
> One-on-One" book is sitting within arm's reach. 

No qualms here.

> However, I am disappointed that your reasons for using views
> are all based on making life easier for the developer. My
> reasons for NOT using views are based on making life easier
> (faster response time) for the end-user. 

,----[ BUT YOU WROTE ]
| I haven't found a compelling reason to use them. I create search
| tables that would otherwise be views, and index them for optimum
| querying. Some tables are partially or totally denormalized, and
| some have every column indexed. I update the search tables
| nightly, weekly, or monthly, depending on business need. I don't
| have to worry about queries or indexing affecting OLTP, and query
| repsonse is excellent because there are fewer joins needed. Also,
| I don't have the expense of a creating a view instance for each
| user.
|
| Of course, it really depends on the situation. We are not 7 x 24,
| so I have the luxury of running the search table updates
| overnight, the ad hoc queries are fairly predictable, and our
| security needs are pretty static.

`----

You have the luxury of being able to create all of your searching structures nightly. The view helps one not have to do this, but, yes, a static one table reporting structure will most assuredly perform better than a bunch of views with complicated joins.

You haven't provided a compelling argument against views. You have found that your environment allows you to create search tables. If you couldn't create these one table search structures, what would you do? Views would probably your next choice.

[Quoted] > I'm not looking for justification of views, just to be
> convinced that they are beneficial to end users, not just
> developers.

Many end-users are people that understand what a database represents. They understand set logic. They understand what they are after. But they also don't have the time to learn SQL syntax and tricks. Views are very helpful to this type of end-user. The other type of end-user is someone who has a front-end that they know, although the backend is a database which they know nothing about. If changes need to happen to the backend or front-end, views could help these changes be less costly and the end-user can have working software faster.

-- 
Galen deForest Boyer
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
Received on Thu Nov 01 2001 - 15:22:02 CET

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