Re-architecturing
Joined: 16-Nov-2008
Hello,
First, let me apologize for the length of this post. I've inherited a potential architecture problem from another programmer (yes, it's my new job to fix the core issues... lucky me
The application used LLBLGen Pro to create a back-end database structure unlike anything I've ever seen.
The programmer decided to make the data structures static, yet the company has a need for dynamic data structures. Data is stored in tables specific to their datatype, so for instance a record with 15 string inputs would store this type of data in a String table, making 15 entries. Same for decimal, integer, etc. The software has to read each datatype table to find the record ID number and assemble the data into a record, then display it in the interface. With only a few records in the database, there are 1,755 string items!
As I see it, this has the following major limitations:
1) You can't relate tables since the data between tables is not related 2) There is no such thing as a row in the table 3) This application will not scale because the datatype table size will grow unmercifully large very quickly 4) This structure is contrary to every book and article I have ever read because there are no records to do anything with.
So I can rearchitecture it to have tables, field columns and data rows easily enough, but now I'm faced with the required that the data structure be dynamic. In other words, the users want to add custom fields and very few of them use the same fields, so standardized templates won't work. LLBLGen Pro can generate code, but can it do so from within the application? In other words, I cannot regenerate the back end databases, objects, fields, etc. manually - it needs to be done by the user via the software.
Can LLBLGen Pro regenerate from within the application?
Thank you for your help.
