How often do You Encounter so called "Frame Problem" while Describing an App. Domain?
Have you experienced such stress in a real-world task and how did you get rid of it? I hope that my question is OK, otherwise feel free to close it. ...
data-modeling
Is there any site where to look for a data modeling inspiration?
Here's my problem: I'm about to design and implement quite a big sales module on top of an existing business (web) application. What I need is basically this - a complete e-commerce layer without the public part of it (I don't need a cart, payment gateways etc.). I'm going to build this thing from scratch since I'm not willing to hack an...
What is the best way to represent "Recurring Events" in database?
I am trying to develop a scheduler- and calendar-dependent event application in C#, for which a crucial requirement is to represent recurring events in the database. What is the best way to represent recurring events in a database? More Details: While creating the event I am also sending invites to the certain users and the invitees sh...
Max Tables & Design Pattern
I am working on an app right now which has the potential to grow quite large. The whole application runs through a single domain, with customers being given sub-domains, which means that it all, of course, runs through a common code-base. What I am struggling with is the database design. I am not sure if it would be better to have a c...
where do i store label info in a contacts database for mailings
I am trying to setup a contacts database for mailings and I am trying to fully automate the labels but can't figure out how. Where in the database would I store the name that would appear on the top of a mailing label: mr & mrs joe thomson dr. and mrs james berry Schwartz family This seems like it would have to be a calculated field...
database relationship to many tables and representation in entity framework
2 part question: 1st What is the best way to setup a table/relationship structure given the following scenario: I have many tables that store different kinds of data (ie: books, movies, magazine - each as different tables) and then one table that stores reviews that can link to any of the table types. So a row in the review table can ...
Is it better in MySQL to have 1 large table or 2 smaller tables?
Here is my situation: I have about 50 different fields of data that I need to store for 1 record (none are the same or repeating). About 15 of the fields are ones that I commonly need to use in queries, while the remainder are used on occasion (~40% of the queries). Should I setup 2 tables, one containing the common fields and the other...
MLS Database Schema
I'm trying to build an app that will take a real estate MLS(Multiple Listing Service) data from a CSV and insert it into the database. I have the CSV parsing taken care of but I'm having trouble making the database efficient. The problem is that the MLS data providers are known to change the format of the property elements quickly withou...
Database design - multi category products with properties
I am designing a basic inventory system for a vendor. They have many different product categories. Each product category has many different properties. A - x1, x2, x3, a1, a2, a3; B - x1, x2, x3, b1, b2, b3, b4; C - x1, x2, x3, c1, c2; Laptop - Make, Price, Quantity, Processor, OS, Hard drive, Memory, Video Card etc Monitor - Make...
Mysql: How do you create a table with multiple primary keys?
I have this situation: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1590033/mysql-newbie-question-which-are-the-pk-and-the-fk-for-this-tables (take a look at the table Salaries) How do you create a table with multiple primary keys? create table salaries ( dep_id smallint auto_increment primary key, emp_id smallint auto_increment primary ke...
DB design for synced desktop application
I'm building a desktop application that will run on multiple laptops. It will need to sync up to a central database whenever the user is back in the office and has access again. My biggest problem to overcome is how to design the database so that it is easily synced with the central database server. One of the major hurdles is trying t...
Activity list ala SO
Hi, We are building a set of features for our application. One of which is a list of recent user activities ala on SO. I'm having a little problem finding the best way to design the table for these activities. Currently we have an Activities table with the following columns UserId (Id of the user the activity is for) Type (Type of ac...
Many-to-many relation with attributes in refClass
Hello, I'm currently designing a website, using symfony (1.2) with Doctrine as an ORM. I have a Dinner class, a Criteria class, and a Mark class. A Mark is linked with a Dinner and a Criteria, and has private attributes, like DateOfMark, MarkValue, etc. Dinner and Criteria can have many Marks (or none). As I use Doctrine, I defin...
More tables or more databases?
Hello to all, I am setting up a system to host WordPress blogs for users of a site I run. Right now, things are functioning pretty well within one database and different blogs running with their own prepended tables (user1_posts, user_posts, etc). Despite this working so far, it feels a bit messy. If this database were to have 4000 t...
Storing identical data efficiently in a Core Data data model
I have a data model that contains several entities, each with several different attributes that store image data. These will all be small images and I need to store them in the persistent store rather than as external files. While I can just store the image data in a Binary or Transformable attribute, it's quite likely that the user wil...
a layman's term for identifying relationship
There are couples of questions around asking for difference / explanation on identifying and non-identifying relationship in relationship database. My question is, can you think of a simpler term for these jargons? I understand that technical terms have to be specific and unambiguous though. But having an 'alternative name' might help ...
Simple Database Table Design/Layout
I'm just wondering, as a hypothetical example, what would be the best way to layout a table for the following scenario: Let's say I'm writing an app for tracking student attendance. At the beginning of every year, I want to add all the students in (I'll do this manually - now, should a student ID be assigned to each one here? Let's call...
Should I break 1 table out to many if it will be hit often?
Right now I have a table for Photos. I expect this table to be hit a lot. Will I improve performance if I break it out into 3 tables if, for exmaple, I have 3 different types of photos? Or will this not improve performance? ...
How to create SQL query for "Likes in common"
Currently I'm building a system (php and mysql), that on the user profile allows you to add "favorite music artists" to a list. 've been trying to figure out a way to compare the user likes to other users and return a "recommended friends". For example: User A Likes - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 User B Likes - 1 <- A likes - 5 - 6 - 7 User C Likes...
MYSQL, using unique table names VS using ids
Hello, I currently have 26 tables in a MYSQL database. My boss wants me to recreate those 26 tables whenever we have a new client, and append a client abbreviation of some sort to those new tables. So for example there's company1~system~users and company2~system~users and so on and so forth. I'd rather just add a table to the database ...