It was a tossup post this here instead of devel. I won't be offended if it is moved.
I'm trying to decide how I can best contribute to the project. With my experience,
I think it would be with DB design and DB/code interaction, so I'm learning what I can about it. I've been studying the DB and source, but some questions need to be answered by people.
If you have any insight to offer into the questions/observations below, please let me know. I'm keeping these points general to benefit all, but if anyones is willing to answer more specific question, I'd appreciate it.
0) The million dollar question - what are the priorities for the database design? Specifically how do speed optimization, integrity, ease of use (both adding entries and importing existing dbs), etc compare? Has DB design been a priority, or has it just been cobbled together piece by piece? What would the benifits need to be to make a major overhaul of the db worthwhile?
1) There are inconsistencies in column/table naming schemes (e.g. id vs account_id vs zoneidnumber), which would seem to make understanding the database harder than it needs to be. Is there a standards guide? Do world builders consider this a problem?
2) Foreign keys - have any attempts been made to define (with or without enforcement) relationships within the DB? Are there reasons not? or reasons any attempt was rejected? Many are obvious, but some aren't easy to decipher just be looking at the table definitions. Has anyone created an ER diagram for the db, would one be useful?
That's enough for now. If there is interest, I will post some more. As I work through the database I'm writing up some documentation for each table and column, which I'll post when it's complete.
Kaldec
Database Design
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