In response to yesterday’s posting, the question was asked, “How does a different interface deal with the fact that a schema change was made to a shared table?” This question goes right to the core issue. The database needs to be able to change without breaking existing applications that are not being modified. One way to describe this is to […]

I’m really pleased with the points brought out in the response from yesterday’s editorial, Database Design Techniques. I started with that topic intending to expose some of the complexities of an enterprise type application. Or, even, an application with a lot of complexity, having more than simple CRUD queries. Others brought out key issues with database design essential for success. […]

There are a lot of different techniques for maintaining your database schema. My favorite, although not my most used method is to diagram first. I prefer to use a database diagramming tool, it doesn’t really matter which one, and diagram a complete database. This includes lookup tables, often annotated in the diagram with representative values. This method works really well […]

We know that most certifications require some form of auditing in your database applications. We take that for granted. Some certifications are more stringent. PCI certification, for example, requires that you not only audit access through your application, but, you must also audit ad-hoc activity. There are a few different ways you perform this kind of auditing. Why is this […]

Many compliance programs require you to audit data acquisition and modification. PCI, HIPAA, SOX as USA examples, and many others around the world, have differing degrees of complexity and retention requirements. Having worked in HIPPA, PCI, AIMR and Limited SOX, there are a lot of similarities and differences that might make it difficult if you fall under two or more. […]

For today I just want to share a little personal experience. I’ve been writing in my editorials small segments of a presentation I made live, last night at the FoxPass users group in N/E Wisconsin. It’s a good thing too. I had the presentation completed with slides, database, demonstration queries and everything locked and loaded, ready to go. My cat […]

Do you want to speed up your table value functions? Sure you do. I suppose that was a silly question. Today I’m giving you a simple technique to help make them run faster. This isn’t new knowledge; but you may not have come across it yet. The simplest table value function can be the same thing as a view. It […]

A couple years ago I wrote about programming with Aspects. From a theoretical perspective, programming with aspects is like combining two different programs into a single program at compile time using coding conventions to link the two together. A common use of aspects is for tracing code execution or logging errors. For conventional error handling you would implement try/catch, and […]

Today I want to wrap up this series on time with a short review and some thoughts on the virtual nature of time.. Time based events may be a single event. That single event may be a durable event with continuing implications, such as a wedding date. You get married at one time’ but, you continue to be married until […]

Yesterday we considered two different kinds of time. A point in time is an event that occurs and is completed immediately. A time segment is an event that begins at a specific point in time, and ends at another, later point in time. The later point in time for a time segment may not have yet occurred. Time becomes more […]