Reg Database design

I am wondering whether this is the right forum, if not please provide me the details of the correct forum where I can post this question.

I am trying to design a data base for a document request tracking system. The users request documents as hard copies in various sizes, color/b&W., soft copies in various formats that may be checked out with a chekin date.

Now how do I create the tables for this? My current design is to have a table for users, documents, request. The request table will reference the userid in user table and the document id in document table. This database will be used for a web application that processes 10 documents at a time.

My question is where do I have the fields for the soft copy and hard copy requests?

Can they be in the request table? If a hardcopy is requested then the details such as size, color, no.of copies fields will have values and those corresponding to other fields of the soft copy will be null.(format, estimated return date etc). As I have to fill up the details for 10 documents there will be around 60 -80 fields in the request table. Will it cause any trouble with the maximum allowable row size of sql server 2000?

Or do I need to make them into a separate table? If so how? What will be the fields that the other tables will be referencing?

Thanks

This is not the right forum, no.

Your question is about relational database design theory. If I were you I'd find a good relational databse design text and read it top to bottom before you even think about attempting this. Hunt out Date, Elmasri and Codd on Amazon!

In the nicest possible way...don't try open heart surgery before you've learnt to put a band-aid on!

-Jamie

|||

Thanks for your reply.

First of all I could not find a forum for discussing database design.

Also I have created a database and added tables to it and written stored procedures. I am currently learning to design a data base and the above application was the project I chose from a list of projects. I am trying to understand the relational data theory and design and thought it would be a good idea to discuss it with some body. I thought this forum seemed to be a little advanced so the guys out there could help me with this.

Thanks

Reference for Security Nazis

Does anyone know of a quick reference I could provide to the it security
folks at my work that outlines what file extensions, ports, and dll's sql
server uses? They've gone hog wild with 'security' software here to the
point that they invariably end up shutting down one behavior or another
within SQL each time they do a 'security upgrade'. Grrrr.

TWSince no one replied, and for the sake of the group, I'll post what I've
come up *so far* as far as necessary ports, file extensions, etc that SQL
needs ...

PORTS:
1433

PROTOCOLS:
smtp

FILE EXTENSIONS:
..mdf
..ldf
..bak
..sql
..csv
..rpt

...I'll update as I come up with more

--TW

"Tech Witch" <tech.witch@.gmail.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:Q_Yzd.6775$iC4.5546@.newssvr30.news.prodigy.co m...
> Does anyone know of a quick reference I could provide to the it security
> folks at my work that outlines what file extensions, ports, and dll's sql
> server uses? They've gone hog wild with 'security' software here to the
> point that they invariably end up shutting down one behavior or another
> within SQL each time they do a 'security upgrade'. Grrrr.
> TW|||Hi

In some ways your security guys should be telling you what they want to do
and what effect it should have. You should change from the standard ports,
SMTP is not needed as a default. Not sure why file extensions are needed,
you should avoid virus checking the database files, None of the extension
you mention contain executable code, restricted access to programs and
directories should be implemented, and non-essential ones removed.

The is alot of information on http://www.sqlsecurity.com
http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=22
http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=24

http://www.microsoft.com/security/g.../SQLServer.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...n/sp3sec04.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/se...s/mbsahome.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en

You should be working with the security guys, they may have already saved
your skin.

John

"Tech Witch" <tech.witch@.gmail.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:SkCAd.4116$F67.400@.newssvr12.news.prodigy.com ...
> Since no one replied, and for the sake of the group, I'll post what I've
> come up *so far* as far as necessary ports, file extensions, etc that SQL
> needs ...
> PORTS:
> 1433
> PROTOCOLS:
> smtp
> FILE EXTENSIONS:
> .mdf
> .ldf
> .bak
> .sql
> .csv
> .rpt
> ...I'll update as I come up with more
> --TW
> "Tech Witch" <tech.witch@.gmail.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> news:Q_Yzd.6775$iC4.5546@.newssvr30.news.prodigy.co m...
>> Does anyone know of a quick reference I could provide to the it security
>> folks at my work that outlines what file extensions, ports, and dll's sql
>> server uses? They've gone hog wild with 'security' software here to the
>> point that they invariably end up shutting down one behavior or another
>> within SQL each time they do a 'security upgrade'. Grrrr.
>>
>> TW
>>
>>|||Thanks, John. I will check these links out. To give you a better idea of
what I'm up against, we had several incidents where our security folks
applied a series of patches that caused some undesirable effects like using
a resource-intensive application to perform virus scanning on files with
..BAK, .MDF, and .LDF extensions each time the files were written (some were
in the GIGs), then they disabled our SMTP ports on the servers with some
firewall software, causing our SQL alerts to stop being sent to DBA's (we
don't use SQL mail here). I'm getting tired of them not telling us what
they are changing and not testing the results of said actions, so I want to
come up with a list of necessary SQL functions & files for them to refer to
next time. Thanks again for your suggestions. I'll post an updated list
when I'm done.

TW

"John Bell" <jbellnewsposts@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:41d3238e$0$5263$afc38c87@.news.easynet.co.uk.. .
> In some ways your security guys should be telling you what they want to do
> and what effect it should have. You should change from the standard ports,
> SMTP is not needed as a default. Not sure why file extensions are needed,
> you should avoid virus checking the database files, None of the extension
> you mention contain executable code, restricted access to programs and
> directories should be implemented, and non-essential ones removed.
> <snip>
> You should be working with the security guys, they may have already saved
> your skin.