Re: EAV - again

From: James K. Lowden <jklowden_at_speakeasy.net>
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2015 14:44:37 -0500
Message-Id: <20150207144437.d9f5169d.jklowden_at_speakeasy.net>


On Fri, 6 Feb 2015 20:59:53 +0000
Eric <eric_at_deptj.eu> wrote:

> 1 is software designed around EAV as a way of providing end-user
> tailoring.

Never mind "tailoring", sometimes that's the whole design.

If you trundle around the world of "master data management" for a little while, you'll soon find million-dollar systems with a single EAV at the center and a giant application on top that lets the "user" -- what used to be called "application developer" -- define a database cum application. It supports domains, constraints, and transformation rules, and the selling point is that it's all ad hoc: you can do anything you want, because the system neither enforces consistency of any kind nor provides any means of checking it (other than user-written reports).

Hurrah! No foreign key violations! Free at last!

And when management asks if it runs on Oracle, the answer of course is Yes.

--jkl Received on Sat Feb 07 2015 - 20:44:37 CET

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