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Posted by Kenneth Downs on 01/25/07 13:02
Toby Inkster wrote:
> Kenneth Downs wrote:
>
>> Exactly. The database and the code are not only interrelated, they are
>> married, or perhaps they are blood brothers, they can never be separated.
>> The code has to know about the structure of the tables.
>
> Well, "the dream" is to build as little database information into the code
> as possible, and have it infer as much as it can by querying the database
> itself. But there's a limit to how much can be done in this area.
>
The completion of "the dream" is to have the library know nothing about any
specific app which is easy if you have a complete dictionary. This is what
we have done, our libraries have zero knowledge of any specific database.
Here is how it works.
We use a tool to build/upgrade databases out of a dictionary. When the build
is complete, it takes the dictionary and generates a bunch of include files
for PHP that contain associative arrays describing each table. Any
function that needs to access a database loads the relevant arrays and
determines whatever it needs to know about the table(s).
In terms of the UI, the gen-spec equation falls usually in favor of
specialization, meaning it pays in the business sense to write specific
files for specific apps that "know" about tables and columns, because that
is what makes that app valuable to a paying customer.
--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec)ure(Dat)a(.com)
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