Design patterns

Data Vault 2.0 Modeling Basics

by Kent Graziano
20 Oct 2015 In my last post, we looked at the need for an Agile Data Engineering solution, issues with some of the current data warehouse modeling approaches, the history of data modeling in general, and Data Vault specifically. This time we get into the technical details of what the Data Vault Model looks like and how you build one. For my examples I will be using a simply Human Resources (HR) type model that most people should relate to (even if you have never worked with an HR model).
Read more
Design patterns

Agile Modeling: Not an Option Anymore

by Kent Graziano
13 Oct 2015 The world is changing. No – the world as we knew it in IT has changed. Big Data & Agile are hot topics. But companies still need to collect, report, and analyze their data. Usually this requires some form of data warehousing or business intelligence system. So how do we do that in the modern IT landscape in a way that allows us to be agile and either deal directly or indirectly with unstructured and semi structured data?
Read more
Design patterns

How to Keep Track of What the Users Do

by Jeffrey Edison
27 Aug 2015 In several of the projects we have worked on, customers have asked us to log more user actions in the database. They want to know all of the actions the users perform in the application, but capturing and recording all human interactions can be challenging. We had to log all modifications of data performed via the system. This article describes some of the pitfalls we encountered and the approaches that we used to overcome them.
Read more
Design patterns

Email Confirmation and Recovering Passwords

by Leandro Toniut
22 Jul 2015 Modern applications have plenty of authentication features beside registration and login. In this article we will take a look at how to design the database for two such features: email confirmation and password recovery. Email Confirmation What Is It? Most people familiar with the Internet know what an activation email is. An activation email is sent to the user after he or she registers for an account on a website or web application and contains a link that will allow the user into the system.
Read more
Design patterns

7 Common Database Design Errors

by Grzegorz Kaczor
17 Jul 2015 Why Talk About Errors? Model Setup 1 – Using Invalid Names 2 – Insufficient Column Width 3 – Not Indexing Properly 4 – Not Considering Possible Volume or Traffic 5 – Ignoring Time Zones 6 – Missing Audit Trail 7 – Ignoring Collation Why Talk About Errors? The art of designing a good database is like swimming. It is relatively easy to start and difficult to master.
Read more
Design patterns

How to Store Authentication Data in a Database. Part 1

by Agnieszka Kozubek
9 Jul 2015 How difficult is it to program a user login function for an application? Novice developers think it’s very easy. Experienced developers know better: it is the most sensitive process in your application. Errors in login screens can lead to serious security issues. In this article we take a look at how to store authentication data in your database. The most common way to authenticate users nowadays is with user name and password.
Read more
Design patterns

Spider Schema – a Bridge Between OLTP and OLAP?

by Jeffrey Edison
3 Jun 2015 Introduction As I mentioned in my article “OLAP for OLTP practitioners”, I am working on a project that needs to create an analytical database for on-line analytical processing (OLAP). I have mostly worked with on-line transaction processing (OLTP) with some limited reporting features. OLAP is a new area for me. In OLAP, the main focus of the database itself is simply to store data for analysis; there is limited maintenance of data.
Read more