[Asterisk-Users] Realtime sipbuddies table structure why?????

[Andrew Thompson]

Matthew Boehm wrote:
>     How so? How would you change it? Are you aware that they have written
> code into app_voicemail.c that allows you to store the actual soundfiles for
> voicemail in the database itself? You want to talk about poor database
> design...sheesh..

So, providing a uniform access model that doesn't depend on file paths, 
capitalization, or numbering is a bad thing?

>>Read it, makes no difference, it's broken :)
>     Whats broken?

The table structure, did you miss it?

>>Also, it doesn't say why the table structure is the way it is.
>     It most certainly does. Seems you didn't read the REAME after all.
<snip kindergarden database structure lesson from readme.extconfig>

> Seems pretty simple and easy to use. This way if new config options are ever
> added, all you have to do to support them is to add a new column. And if all
> you are storing in most columns is 1 byte, it can't take up that much space.

"are ever added" That's entertaining. Developers working on special 
tasks add fields that may not ever make it into CVS stable. I think I've 
read of two or more that are in CVS-HEAD right now.

Flexible table structure isn't "we'll just add a field". Especially when 
the likelihood of new pieces of data needing to be tracked is high.

I don't claim to know everything about database structure, but that is 
my job, and I don't believe a flat table is the way to go. Trust me, I 
just added six fields to a flat table that I wish now that I had never 
created. If I can't get the time to rewrite it, I am sure I'll need to 
add six more fields within the next few months.

--
Andrew Thompson
http://aktzero.com/