Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Tue May 25 21:51:24 CDT 2004
I'm just starting a new project and I'm in two minds about one aspect of the database design. Since this has been discussed so much in the last few days, I thought I'd throw it in for discussion. It's an Accomodation Register type thing for an organisation that has lots of staff housing. AccomodationUnits are children of Properties (Sometimes there will be a house on a property, sometimes a block of several units, possibly dormitory style with individual rooms etc) The client wants to store difital photos. Photos could be of a particular unit or of the whole property. I will be storing the name of the photo file and pulling the image as required from it's storage location. As I see it there are several possibilities including: tblPhotos: AccomUnit/PropertyID AccomUnit/PropertyType Filename.......etc or tblPhotos: AccomUnitID PropertyID Filename.......etc (only store ID for the appropriate Property Type) or tblAccomUnitPhotos: AccomUnit Filename.......etc AND tblPropertyPhotos: PropertyID Filename.......etc Any comments/suggestions as to how far I should normalize <g> and pros/cons of the various approaches - taking into account establishing relationships between tables in the BE, maintaining referential integrity, ease of data retrieval/maintenance in the FE? -- Lexacorp Ltd http://www.lexacorp.com.pg Information Technology Consultancy, Software Development,System Support.