Comments on: Database Design http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:32:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Tony http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-65 Tony Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:10:32 +0000 http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-65 <p>Thanks for the comments guys. You do have some valid points but as I have said it's a draft. Prefixing with tbl is something you love or hate. A lot of the database's I look after on a day to day basis have 100's of users with access front ends, some users really don't know the difference between tables, views etc so prefixing has become a habit of mine that saves lots of problems when linking (both show as tables).</p> <p>Gym isn't plural because there wont be multiple gyms. A better name would have been tblGymActivities as the table is for recording activity you do at the gym.</p> <p>Sometimes the obvious mistakes don't appear until you start interfacing to the database and/or adding data. Hence why I said it's only 50% of the final version and the UI mock ups will help me decide.</p> <p>Just so you know that there are some tables omitting from this design as they would clearly give away some of the functionality I am not ready to share and to be honest I won't be publishing my final design. This application isn't open source it's just a log of some of the things I have to do to create an app.</p> <p>Seriously though thanks for the criticism, I believe there is no such thing as bad criticism, only constructive.</p> Thanks for the comments guys. You do have some valid points but as I have said it’s a draft. Prefixing with tbl is something you love or hate. A lot of the database’s I look after on a day to day basis have 100’s of users with access front ends, some users really don’t know the difference between tables, views etc so prefixing has become a habit of mine that saves lots of problems when linking (both show as tables).

Gym isn’t plural because there wont be multiple gyms. A better name would have been tblGymActivities as the table is for recording activity you do at the gym.

Sometimes the obvious mistakes don’t appear until you start interfacing to the database and/or adding data. Hence why I said it’s only 50% of the final version and the UI mock ups will help me decide.

Just so you know that there are some tables omitting from this design as they would clearly give away some of the functionality I am not ready to share and to be honest I won’t be publishing my final design. This application isn’t open source it’s just a log of some of the things I have to do to create an app.

Seriously though thanks for the criticism, I believe there is no such thing as bad criticism, only constructive.

]]> By: Ian http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-64 Ian Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:12:02 +0000 http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-64 You don't seem to very consistent in your database design. I wouldn't have published it at this stage as it looks like you lack some design skills. You don’t seem to very consistent in your database design. I wouldn’t have published it at this stage as it looks like you lack some design skills.

]]> By: Anthony http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-61 Anthony Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:43:02 +0000 http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-61 Talking about database design, why did you prefix all your table names with 'tbl'? From a database designer point of view if you use SQL Server 2005 Management Studio your tables will be listed under 'tables' so there is no need to specify in the name of each table that they are tables. From a developer point of view, writing 'select GymId from Gym' is very clear and (slightly) shorter than 'select GymId from tblGym'. Also: -why is your tblUsers table in plural but your tblGym table in singular? Are you implying that you will have multiple users in your User table but only one gym in your Gym table? Same with the Journal table etc. It's your choice to have all the table names either in singular or plural but you should be consistent. I personally prefer all the names to be in singular as I find it simpler. If a user can be linked to multiple gyms, will you create a GymUser table? GymsUser? GymUsers? GymsUsers? If they are all in singular you don't have to ask yourself such question. -Why is your primary key in your Gym table called GymId but in your User table called UID (as opposed to UserId). Same with JID instead of JournalId,etc. You're not consistent. If you don't pay attention to those details at this stage, I'm a bit worried about your final product. The database will be invisible to the end users so it doesn't matter that much but if you're as inconsistent with the UI that will frustrate a lot of people. Talking about database design, why did you prefix all your table names with ‘tbl’?
From a database designer point of view if you use SQL Server 2005 Management Studio your tables will be listed under ‘tables’ so there is no need to specify in the name of each table that they are tables.
From a developer point of view, writing ’select GymId from Gym’ is very clear and (slightly) shorter than ’select GymId from tblGym’.

Also:
-why is your tblUsers table in plural but your tblGym table in singular? Are you implying that you will have multiple users in your User table but only one gym in your Gym table? Same with the Journal table etc. It’s your choice to have all the table names either in singular or plural but you should be consistent. I personally prefer all the names to be in singular as I find it simpler. If a user can be linked to multiple gyms, will you create a GymUser table? GymsUser? GymUsers? GymsUsers? If they are all in singular you don’t have to ask yourself such question.
-Why is your primary key in your Gym table called GymId but in your User table called UID (as opposed to UserId). Same with JID instead of JournalId,etc. You’re not consistent.

If you don’t pay attention to those details at this stage, I’m a bit worried about your final product. The database will be invisible to the end users so it doesn’t matter that much but if you’re as inconsistent with the UI that will frustrate a lot of people.

]]> By: Chris http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-59 Chris Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:32:22 +0000 http://www.thinklife.co.uk/2007/10/05/database-design/#comment-59 Hi Tony, I found your blog from Starr over at <a href="http://steplivelynow.com/blog/" title="Step Lively Now" rel="nofollow">Step Lively Now</a> I'll be following your blog to see how you are doing. I'm in the same boat you are, trying to get my MicroISV off the ground. I need to go back and read the rest of your posts to come up to speed with how far along you are. I'm about to enter a full beta phase. I just started my personal blog about the technical and business development at <a href="http://mymicroisvjourney.blogspot.com/" title="My MicroISV Journey" rel="nofollow">My MicroISV Journey.</a> Good luck. Hi Tony,
I found your blog from Starr over at Step Lively Now I’ll be following your blog to see how you are doing. I’m in the same boat you are, trying to get my MicroISV off the ground. I need to go back and read the rest of your posts to come up to speed with how far along you are. I’m about to enter a full beta phase. I just started my personal blog about the technical and business development at My MicroISV Journey.

Good luck.

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