We are startingt o build the database fresh, lots of tables and fields to create for a social website. There will be heavy API implemntation so I am pushing the tech team for solid documentation of data schema, however lost on naming for fields and tables.
I want it to all be user friendly, maybe specify the type of table it is also like if it is a lookup table, system table, etc. Any suggestions on styles with examples? Like this
UserDetails
User_Details
userdetails
user_details
TblUserDetails
Tbl_UserDetails
...
There will be over 200 lookup tables and lots of user tables so want to get it right from the start. Doing in MySQL and PHP but later move to JAVA platform. I know there is no right and wrong but looking for best practices so it can be easily understood by everyone, documentation can be good, and in the future if we move around platforms, etc it should not be an issue.
Also, what are the good "open source" tools to use for "user-friendly" documentation of table relationships, schema, etc so both tech and non tech people can understand the data model? Currently they are doing it in excel and it is not user friendly at all to document it this way.