[ic] database table redesign

[Jason]

D Zhang - msi wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Browning" <dbml@kavod.com>
> To: <interchange-users@icdevgroup.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 3:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [ic] database table redesign
> 
> 
> 
>>At 10:56 AM 4/4/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>>
>>>I was wondering if anyone has ever thought of redesigning the interchange
>>>table designs? They don't appear to be well normalized.
>>>I understand that IC can run on anything from text files to rdbms, so I
>>>was wondering if the tables aren't normalized because of a limitation due
>>>to the text or dbm tables or because it would just be too large a
> 
> project.
> 
>>>If anyone has any insight into how big a project this would be to really
>>>clean up the table designs for optimial usage by an rdbms like
>>>Oracle I would be interested in hearing from you.
>>
>>Hello Jason, it's a pleasure to have you on the list.  I hope you'll
> 
> excuse
> 
>>my asking you to get up to speed with these threads:
>>
>>
> 
> http://www.icdevgroup.org/pipermail/interchange-users/2001-April/006781.html
> 
>>
> http://www.icdevgroup.org/pipermail/interchange-users/2002-July/023499.html
> 
>>My own position is:
>>
>>The database is the way it is because it is
>>
>>  * Easy (e.g. storing the address information in 'transactions' allows
> 
> the
> 
>>'historical' information to stick around very easily).
>>
> 
> 
> "storing the address information in 'transactions' " is also necessary to
> keep order history, as Janothon pointed out in replying to the post cited
> above (2002-July/023499.html)

I wouldn't agree that it is necessary. You can store a transaction 
history of addresses and such through a non-user updateable customer 
address book. That is how my setup is for another ecommerce system I 
work on. It involves a couple extra joins in queries but that is how a 
rdb is supposed to work.

> 
>>>If anyone has any insight into how big a project this would be to really
>>>clean up the table designs for optimial usage by an rdbms like
>>>Oracle I would be interested in hearing from you.
> 
> 
> I would suggest you to get familiar with the business operation before
> considering to re-design something.
> 

I am trying to decide if I want to use IC on a project. I am used to a 
3-NF database and so saw the lack of it here as a drawback. This being 
open source I was trying to see if this was a modification people were 
interested in as well as myself.