Database - Manage data online. Complete flexibility for your own system
database development
Matter Solutions realises that 95% of clients and design partners don't want to know about the database! If you're looking at this page we guess you're in the 5%.
We don't use techie jargon with clients or design partners because this can be baffling for some people - although this jargon is important behind the scenes. We've written the following with this in mind.
Database design
'Database design' is actually a rather old-fashioned term to describe what we do. Here's why:
Although databases are great and do a huge amount of critical tasks there has been a move beyond just designing a database, building tables and then creating forms to capture data into those tables. The problem with this approach is that it centres upon the data records NOT the links and business rules between different data records.
With the right conventions and configuration, the underlying parts of the system manage all the linkages with the database. This maximises a developer's productivity, releasing them to work on the really important tasks, encoding business rules.
When we say 'business rules' we mean all the really intricate details about which customer can see which invoice, and what level of administrator can update a customer's profile.
The techie bit
This move to focus on the business rules inside a system has been facilitated by Object Relational Mapping (ORM). This allows us to focus in the Objects and the classic Object Oriented approach of Classes, Responsibilities and Collaboration (known as CRC).
This stuff isn't new, it was first discussed in the late 1970's. It's just hard to do well, which is why we're proud of the way we use it!
As every project progresses, we use iterations of development and refactoring to optimise the system. This often includes using SQL to enable complex joins and queries, and to ensure that data integrity is maintained.