example_models
A Data Model for an Online Musical Equipment Shop
20 Mar 2019
What kind of data model supports an online musical equipment store?Musical equipment shops used to be one of those old-fashioned industries, one that you wouldn’t expect could (or should) adapt to the online world. It wasn’t unreasonable to paint such a picture. After all, you can’t choose your ideal guitar based solely on magazine pictures, can you? Musicians and wannabe-musicians need to try various instruments, hearing and feeling how each one responds when played.
example_models
A Data Model for a Wine Store
6 Mar 2019
Producing a great wine is a really complex process, one that takes many years to master. Offering and selling wines to customers is another complicated process. There are many stores specializing in only one product. If you want that product, you’ll go to that store. Wine stores are an example of what I’m talking about. What would be the data background of a wine store? Let’s find out.In many ways, a wine store is like any other store. So, you can expect this data model to have most of the tables common to any other retail business. Still, there will be some details that will distinguish this model from others.
example_models
A Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform Data Model
20 Feb 2019
There are many online portals which allow investors to lend money directly to individual borrowers – with no banks acting as intermediaries. What data model might underlie such a site?Online lending platforms bring borrowers and investors together and allow them to choose to whom they want to lend their money (in the case of investors) and who they want to borrow money from (in the case of borrowers). Some peer-to-peer lending sites also allow borrowers and investors to make their own deals in terms of lending rates (i.e. interest rates) and loan tenure.
example_models
Automobile Repair Shop Data Model
6 Feb 2019
Running an automobile/car repair shop is a really complex business. You’ll need to make appointments while some customers will drive in and you don’t want to have them wait for hours. Also, you’ll need to organize employees, track repairs, materials, charge customers, etc. You’ll definitely need an IT solution and, of course, a data model in the background. Today we’ll talk about one such model.The IdeaI’ve already mentioned that this business model is really complex. Therefore, I won’t try to cover everything. I’ve intentionally omitted tracking materials and spare parts and also simplified some parts of the model. The reason for that is pretty simple. If I’ve included really everything, the model would simply be too large for an article of the reasonable size. So, let’s start.
example_models
The Smart Home Data Model
24 Jan 2019
Smart homes used to be strictly in the future; now they are a reality. Most of us have heard about them, but they are not so widespread as they will be in the near future. Managing your home the ‘smart’ way will definitely produce a lot of data. Today, we’ll analyze a data model we could use to store smart home data.The Data ModelWhen you think of a smart home, you probably think of remotely locking and unlocking your home, activating alarms, lights, or cameras from your phone, having thermometers that automatically manage your heating and cooling, etc. But smart homes can do much more. You can connect a number of smart devices and controllers to achieve many complex functionalities. You can send instructions to devices or read their statuses from wherever you are.
example_models
A Data Model for a Freelancers Collective
21 Dec 2018
Freelancing is becoming more and more popular these days. While most freelancers are a one-man band, that’s not the only option. You could be a part of a collective and collaborate on larger and more complex projects. A data model that could power a freelancers collective’s app is the topic of today’s article.Freelancing is not new, but it’s becoming more and more popular. Working from 9:00 to 17:00 has certain advantages, but it also comes with many disadvantages. Therefore, an increasing number of people decide to become freelancers.
design_patterns
The 9 Most Common Database Design Errors
12 Dec 2018
You’ve probably made some of these mistakes when you were starting your database design career. Maybe you’re still making them, or you’ll make some in the future. We can’t go back in time and help you undo your errors, but we can save you from some future (or present) headaches.Reading this article might save you many hours spent fixing design and code problems, so let’s dive in. I’ve split the list of errors into two main groups: those that are
example_models
A Subscription Business Data Model
15 Nov 2018
In the previous two parts, we’ve presented the live database model for a subscription-based business and a data warehouse (DWH) we could use for reporting. While it’s obvious that they should work together, there was no connection between these two models. Today, we’ll take that next step and write the code to transfer data from the live database into our DWH.The Data ModelsBefore we dive into the code, let’s remind ourselves of the two models we’ll work with. First is the transactional data model we’ll use to store our real-time data. Taking into account that we run a subscription-based business, we’ll need to store customer and subscription details, customers’ orders, and the order statuses.
example_models
A Subscription Business Data Model
24 Oct 2018
Can you design an OLAP database model from an OLTP model? In this article, we’ll show you how!This is the second article of our data warehouse (DWH) series. You can find the first one here . The idea behind the series is to start with the OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) database model, present a possible solution for the reporting/OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) data model, and then finally consider the code we’ll use to perform the ETL process.
database_internals
Querying MySQL’s INFORMATION SCHEMA: Why? How?
9 Oct 2018
Databases need to run optimally, but that’s not such an easy task. The INFORMATION SCHEMA database can be your secret weapon in the war of database optimization.We’re used to creating databases using a graphical interface or a series of SQL commands. That’s completely fine, but it’s also good to understand a bit about what is going on in the background. This is important for the creation, maintenance, and optimization of a database, and it’s also a good way to track changes that happen ‘behind the scenes’.
