bliki tagged by: database
ApplicationDatabase
I use the term Application Database for a database that is controlled and accessed by a single application, (in contrast to an IntegrationDatabase). Since only a single application accesses the database, the database can be defined specifically to make that one application's needs easy to satisfy. This leads to a more concrete schema that is usually easier to understand and often less complex than that for an IntegrationDatabase.
DatabaseStyles
When I talk about databases and how they relate to applications, I've found it useful to distinguish between two styles of database: ApplicationDatabase and IntegrationDatabase. The difference between the two lies in whether the database is controlled and encapsulated within a single ApplicationBoundary.
24 May 2004
HierarchicDataModel
A hierarchic data model organizes in the form of a hierarchy or tree structure. Early databases and programming data structures commonly used hierarchic models, but these fell out of favor. In the database world the RelationalDataModel became dominant, while for most in-memory programming the NetworkDataModel dominates. This was due to the fact that a hierarchy, while a simple organizational tool, breaks down as you get more complex data.
IncrementalMigration
Like any profession, software development has it's share of oft-forgotten activities that are usually ignored but have a habit of biting back at just the wrong moment. One of these is data migration.
7 July 2008
NetworkDataModel
The network data model structures data as record types, with pointer links to allow to navigate between one record and another. So to query a network data model you begin at one record and move around pointer references.
ReportingDatabase
If I'm using a domain model, how do I support ad hoc SQL queries?
2 April 2004
Transactionless
A couple of years ago I was talking to a couple of friends of mine who were doing some work at eBay. It's always interesting to hear about the techniques people use on high volume sites, but perhaps one of the most interesting tidbits was that eBay mostly hardly ever uses database transactions.
18 March 2007
DataModels
One of my early favorite books was Tsichritzis and Lochovsky's book on Data Models. The book discussed different models for thinking about data, in particular the three models most discussed at the time: RelationalDataModel, HierarchicDataModel and NetworkDataModel.
12 February 2004
DatabaseThaw
A few years ago I heard programming language people talk about the "Nuclear Winter" in languages caused by Java. The feeling was that everyone had so converged on Java's computational model (C# at that point seen as little more than a rip-off) that creativity in programming languages had disappeared. That feeling is now abating, but perhaps a more important thaw that might be beginning - the longer and deeper freeze in thinking about databases.
24 November 2008
InMemoryTestDatabase
An in-memory database is a database that runs entirely in main memory, without touching a disk. Often they run as an embedded database: created when a process starts, running embedded within that process, and is destroyed when the process finishes.
22 November 2005
IntegrationDatabase
An integration database is a database which acts as the data store for multiple applications, and thus integrates data across these applications (in contrast to an ApplicationDatabase).
RelationalDataModel
The relational data model is best known to most people through relational data bases, and through the SQL language. Colloquially, we think of the database as a set of tables, each row of which contains data. We can manipulate these tables in various ways to do queries, each query results in another table. In contrast to NetworkDataModel, there are no explicit pointers between tables, links are made by join tables on common values (although the use of surrogate keys means you have pointers in practice.)
ResourcePool
Many programs need to make use of resources that are expensive to create and maintain. Examples of these are database connections and threads. A resource pool provides a good way to manage these resources.
29 March 2011