The LinkedIn MySQL DB Development group posed a questions on how to handle images. Naturally, the argument always goes: Should images be deployed in the database or the file system? I believe they should be stored in the database because the cost and time associated is too high with regard to managing files, a file naming schema, and backing up the file system discretely from the database.

Since there’s a significant difference between the backup of transactional data and image data, they should be placed in different databases. The imagedb database is where you would place the images and large text descriptions, as shown in the MySQL Workbench ERD:

The imagedb ERD splits the foreign key references back to the system_user table, which contains the individual user credentials. The …

Why should you use stored programs? Great question, here’s my little insight into a situation that I heard about in a large organization.

A very large organization is having a technology argument. In someway, like politics, half-truth drives this type of discussion. This company has hundreds of databases and they’re about half SQL Server and Oracle. The argument (half-truth) states that using T-SQL or PL/SQL yields “spaghetti” code!

It seems like an old argument from my perspective. After all, I’ve been working with T-SQL and PL/SQL for a long time. Spaghetti code exists in every language when unskilled programmers solve problems but the point here is one of software architecture, and an attempt to malign stored programming in general. Let’s examine the merit of the argument against stored programs.

First of all, the argument against stored programs is simply not true. SQL DML statements, like the …

Visual database design is very essential. Almost every web application needs database. And by designing visual representation, relation of tables makes an developer easy to understand on the database. There are many tools to design database like DBDesigner, SQLYog. Recently I found another application that is called MySQL Workbench. It can be used to efficiently design, manage and document database schemata. After using it’s functionality, I found this is a really good tool for design database specially for MySQL.

It is available as both, open source and commercial editions. The Community (OSS) Edition is available from this page under the free software/opensource GNU General Public License (commonly known as the “GPL”)

Download MySQL Workbench …

My wife wants to learn database design. She is an archaeologist. She wants to read a book written in plain English, not h4×0r jargon. She is smart and capable and knows her own data, but does not know SQL or database theory. She wants to be able to design databases and be understood by others who know database design. She also wants to be able to explain her ideas to a programmer who will build the systems she’s designing. Is there a book for her?

Books, Database Design

First saw this off of Planet MySQL:

 New Vendor Neutral Database Certification (Dave's Stuff)

Following the link to the CIW site, there are six domains that are being tested:

1. Relational Database Fundamentals
2. Relational Database Design and Application
3. Normalization and Database Design
4. Structured Query Language (SQL)
   
5. Relational Algebra and Databases
6. Transactions, Concurrency Control and Security

I wonder how much traction this independent certification will get, given the flavors each of the various database platforms use of SQL and …

A week ago, Mike Zinner and his team released the beta version of MySQL Workbench on http://dev.mysql.com/workbench/. MySQL Workbench is a visual database design tool that is developed by MySQL. It is the successor application of the DBDesigner4 project.

There are two different editions of MySQL Workbench at this point in time - an open source edition and a standard edition that is only available for paying customers.

This means that MySQL Workbench introduces a new concept for MySQL. Until now, MySQL products have either been open source or only available through a commercial subscription (such as MySQL Enterprise Monitor).

MySQL Workbench is …