The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - Good DB schema design book/site reccomendations?

Good DB schema design book/site reccomendations?

Hi All,

I've been having a bit of trouble determining the best organizational schema for the db on a current project. I've designed/used many a database throughout various projects, but this one has a quirk in the requirements that I'm not sure how to best attack.

So, I thought it may be a good time to pick up a good database design book and/or read through a few good site. Does anyone have any reccomendations?

(Should I specify that Immean a relational database?)

Thanks in advance,

--Josh

JWA
Monday, January 5, 2004

"Data Access Patterns" might be up your alley

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131401572/102-8754635-8390559?v=glance

Code Monkey
Monday, January 5, 2004

Thanks Code Monkey, that looks like an interesting book for access patterns, and I'll probably read it.

I'm asking more about db schema design. Tables, relations, and how best to represnt the business requirements for the data within the db.

Maybe I should give a bit of an example of the issue that I'm trying to decide on an optimum solution for:

The general layout is like this:
- The primary entities are machines
- Each machine contains named sections
- Each section contains components
- Each component has a number of tasks
- Each task is comprised of action text and zero to many resources

Additionally:

- Predefined common entries:
- The user can predefine a list of common components (each having predefined tasks with their resources)
- The user can predefine a list of common resources
- When defining a component for a section or a resource for a task, the user can either enter one manually or select one of the predefined entries
- The predefined components and resources can be edited later, with the updated info being reflected in those records where the component or resource has chosen by the user

The above is somewhat simplified, but outlines the issue I'm deciding on. Without the need to maintain referential relationships between the predefined components chosen by the user this is as simple as it gets. It's also very simple to do this a number of ways if I require the app to manually do some of the updating when the predefined entries are edited. But, I'm not sure how to best lay this out relationally within the db. I have a number of ideas, but it seems like I'm missing something.

Thus, I'm looking more for a book and/or links on relational db design. (Of course if anyone has any comments on the project, those would be appreciated as well.)

Regards,

--Josh

JWA
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

The first opportunity in 2004 to mention ORM...

http://www.orm.net/

Simon Lucy
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

David hay's Data model Patterns

Karel
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Try http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321197844/qid=1073377456/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-9564394-9381611?v=glance&s=books . I learnt almost all of the theoretical stuff on databases from an ealier edition of this book.

Ling
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Designing Relational Database Systems by Rebecca Riordan, Microsoft Press, 1999.

Might not solve your present problem but you'll profit from it over the years.

Stephen Jones
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Len Silverston and Universal Data Models is a good reference for generic data models that can be used as a starting point for what you are trying to achieve.
http://www.univdata.com/

Tapiwa
Tuesday, January 6, 2004

You might want to try this book

Database design for Mere mortals 2nd edition by Michael J.Hernandez

hxxp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201752840/qid=1073399942/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0680444-5171016?v=glance&s=books

eddy
Tuesday, January 6, 2004