How do Coders Get Database Experts? For a project
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So here's the thing. I am a new coder and I am working on my first big project from scratch. My project is using ASP.NET MVC, Google Maps API, Entity Framework, with SQL Server. I got a very early protype started on my local machine but I'm starting to run into database design complications. I am already new to coding, but somehow have managed to figure out MVC and get a Web API going. However, I am even less experienced than that with databases and database administration. I know how to add/remove database objects and set up tables and all that jazz; that's not a big deal. But I'm having questions such as: *What is the best way to associate user accounts in my system with their business' information... *I want my users to be able to add/remove products to their business' inventory table... What is the best way to set up the database to store each individual product. *What is a good way to pair the information given to me via business owners with the data I pull from Google API. *Should I create a new object for each inventory item or just list it in a long text string of all inventory items since no details will be needed? *When do I have my application create an entire new database versus just add a new table in an existing database? For example, should user accounts and businesses be in two separate databases? And more... These questions are less coding questions and more database setup/administration questions... Questions I'd love to ask someone who has made a big modern commercial database before that handles accounts and inventory and all that. Obviously, coding questions will come up too but a lot of it is just database design. So, my real question here is... How do most coders do this? I would iamgine a lot of coders are not DB experts... Should I buy a Database Administration book and read it? Should I consult an expert? Since this will be a data-driven application, database setup is important. Thanks! PS: Please, don't worry about me being overwhelmed. I mean, if this is something that will seriously take 6 months of dedicated study, it may be better left for me to call up someone else... But even though I just started programming a few months back, I'm actually loving getting into all of this and it is not intimidating at all.
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So here's the thing. I am a new coder and I am working on my first big project from scratch. My project is using ASP.NET MVC, Google Maps API, Entity Framework, with SQL Server. I got a very early protype started on my local machine but I'm starting to run into database design complications. I am already new to coding, but somehow have managed to figure out MVC and get a Web API going. However, I am even less experienced than that with databases and database administration. I know how to add/remove database objects and set up tables and all that jazz; that's not a big deal. But I'm having questions such as: *What is the best way to associate user accounts in my system with their business' information... *I want my users to be able to add/remove products to their business' inventory table... What is the best way to set up the database to store each individual product. *What is a good way to pair the information given to me via business owners with the data I pull from Google API. *Should I create a new object for each inventory item or just list it in a long text string of all inventory items since no details will be needed? *When do I have my application create an entire new database versus just add a new table in an existing database? For example, should user accounts and businesses be in two separate databases? And more... These questions are less coding questions and more database setup/administration questions... Questions I'd love to ask someone who has made a big modern commercial database before that handles accounts and inventory and all that. Obviously, coding questions will come up too but a lot of it is just database design. So, my real question here is... How do most coders do this? I would iamgine a lot of coders are not DB experts... Should I buy a Database Administration book and read it? Should I consult an expert? Since this will be a data-driven application, database setup is important. Thanks! PS: Please, don't worry about me being overwhelmed. I mean, if this is something that will seriously take 6 months of dedicated study, it may be better left for me to call up someone else... But even though I just started programming a few months back, I'm actually loving getting into all of this and it is not intimidating at all.
Do NOT get a book on database administration, yet. Get a book on database DEVELOPER, admin and dev are very different roles. There is also as site with sample database, ah found it[^], pick one close to your industry and try and understand why the design was used. He is pretty good and faithful to the rules of DB design. After you have got a feel for DB design feel free to ask silly, or not so silly question here. Your first 3 questions are answered by foreign keys You should create 1 table per CLASS of inventory (if an items attributes are so different to an existing class then create a new class). Your application should NEVER create a new database except for backup (and this should be an admin job not application). If your scale is going to so huge (as in multiple of terabytes) that storage is an issue then you could split the data into different databases but I have never had to do that.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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So here's the thing. I am a new coder and I am working on my first big project from scratch. My project is using ASP.NET MVC, Google Maps API, Entity Framework, with SQL Server. I got a very early protype started on my local machine but I'm starting to run into database design complications. I am already new to coding, but somehow have managed to figure out MVC and get a Web API going. However, I am even less experienced than that with databases and database administration. I know how to add/remove database objects and set up tables and all that jazz; that's not a big deal. But I'm having questions such as: *What is the best way to associate user accounts in my system with their business' information... *I want my users to be able to add/remove products to their business' inventory table... What is the best way to set up the database to store each individual product. *What is a good way to pair the information given to me via business owners with the data I pull from Google API. *Should I create a new object for each inventory item or just list it in a long text string of all inventory items since no details will be needed? *When do I have my application create an entire new database versus just add a new table in an existing database? For example, should user accounts and businesses be in two separate databases? And more... These questions are less coding questions and more database setup/administration questions... Questions I'd love to ask someone who has made a big modern commercial database before that handles accounts and inventory and all that. Obviously, coding questions will come up too but a lot of it is just database design. So, my real question here is... How do most coders do this? I would iamgine a lot of coders are not DB experts... Should I buy a Database Administration book and read it? Should I consult an expert? Since this will be a data-driven application, database setup is important. Thanks! PS: Please, don't worry about me being overwhelmed. I mean, if this is something that will seriously take 6 months of dedicated study, it may be better left for me to call up someone else... But even though I just started programming a few months back, I'm actually loving getting into all of this and it is not intimidating at all.
If you're working on enterprise or Web Applications, it's pretty much a given that you'll need to understand how databases work. There's not getting away from the fact that you can mess yourself up badly if you don't understand normalization, concurrency, and relationships. The current bar is SQL, and if you're interested in web apps I would strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with relational design; your model class designs should be informed by the relational system and, more importantly, normalization. Once you understand the relational schema, then make your life easier by having a look at document stores like Mongo.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
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So here's the thing. I am a new coder and I am working on my first big project from scratch. My project is using ASP.NET MVC, Google Maps API, Entity Framework, with SQL Server. I got a very early protype started on my local machine but I'm starting to run into database design complications. I am already new to coding, but somehow have managed to figure out MVC and get a Web API going. However, I am even less experienced than that with databases and database administration. I know how to add/remove database objects and set up tables and all that jazz; that's not a big deal. But I'm having questions such as: *What is the best way to associate user accounts in my system with their business' information... *I want my users to be able to add/remove products to their business' inventory table... What is the best way to set up the database to store each individual product. *What is a good way to pair the information given to me via business owners with the data I pull from Google API. *Should I create a new object for each inventory item or just list it in a long text string of all inventory items since no details will be needed? *When do I have my application create an entire new database versus just add a new table in an existing database? For example, should user accounts and businesses be in two separate databases? And more... These questions are less coding questions and more database setup/administration questions... Questions I'd love to ask someone who has made a big modern commercial database before that handles accounts and inventory and all that. Obviously, coding questions will come up too but a lot of it is just database design. So, my real question here is... How do most coders do this? I would iamgine a lot of coders are not DB experts... Should I buy a Database Administration book and read it? Should I consult an expert? Since this will be a data-driven application, database setup is important. Thanks! PS: Please, don't worry about me being overwhelmed. I mean, if this is something that will seriously take 6 months of dedicated study, it may be better left for me to call up someone else... But even though I just started programming a few months back, I'm actually loving getting into all of this and it is not intimidating at all.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote:
I mean, if this is something that will seriously take 6 months of dedicated study
Not sure how to address that part. A database admin who comes into a shop with no other admin should have about 5 years of experience doing just that. So 5 years of a 40 hour a week job. A place that wants to hack it a bit more with small initial aspirations but whose goal is to deliver a product could get by with a developer who has had 2 years of experience working with databases via a programming language (so familiar with the database but primarily programming is C#, Java, etc.)
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote:
How do most coders do this?
Do it every day for years.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote:
Since this will be a data-driven application
Very little that isn't but that doesn't insure that you must use a database.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote:
Please, don't worry about me being overwhelmed...I'm actually loving getting into all
So dive in. You can't learn it if you never start. There are books about programming with databases. You should find one of those. Database design is a different issue just as design itself is a different issue and I have never found a book that really teaches design well (of any sort.) The basics of programming however does lend itself well to books. If you don't mind reading then one that focuses on database programming and another that attempts to teach database admin will, over time, help. I have never been a DB Admin but the admin books I do have have been helpful. As a suggestion try to keep your design as simple as possible.