Re: What are the consequences of a bad database design

On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 01:00:43PM +0300, Costin Manda wrote:
> > But the people i am working with are not considering the
> > restructuring of the database. They are even thinking of expanding
> > it by adding new modules.
>
> > Please can someone advise me, or tell me what to do, what may be
> > the consequences

The consequences are what they're seeing already: bad data and slow
queries.  Not fixing this will only make things worse.

> I have been working with databases for web scripts (PHP) and all
> sorts of stupid billing systems and databases.  Right now my system
> uses PHP to access mysql, postgres and mssql databases in the same
> time.  The only possible solution for many of these problems was to
> create by own database with my own tables and create a script to
> replicate the data from one to the other periodically.

I think you've just found the classical case for using DBI-Link :)
http://pgfoundry.org/projects/dbi-link/

> I think that you should try to move the system to your own way of
> thinking and doing things and leave them the alternatives.  Sooner
> or later they will use your system as it is better.

That, or you'll get sacked. :/

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter david@fetter.org http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 510 893 6100   mobile: +1 415 235 3778

Remember to vote!