tracking shipments, inventory

From: Jeme <jeme.rey_at_gmail.com>
Date: 22 Dec 2004 23:09:50 -0800
Message-ID: <1103785790.264859.44390_at_z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>

Wondering about best practice for an order processing system where current shipment tables look something like this:

order_shipment : (shipid, shipdate, shipqty, ...)

ship_ToCustomer : (shipid, custlocid)
ship_ToStock : (shipid, stocklocid)
ship_FromStockToCustomer : (shipid, stocklocid, custlocid)
ship_FromStockToStock : (shipid, stocklocid_from, stocklocid_to)

The parent table has shipid PK; the child tables have shipid FK. Inventory becomes a process of aggregating records across the child tables.

Is this the best way to implement? Seems proper Normal form, but the temporal dependency is burdensome and worrisome. Thanks in advance for suggestions, discussion, etc.! Received on Thu Dec 23 2004 - 08:09:50 CET