Forum OpenACS Development: Re: Why unique constraints should be treated with care

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Posted by Don Baccus on
"So my warning / plea is solemnly: If you make a unique or not null constraint in the datamodell, make sure that your assumption is correct and can be remodelled in the real world, as changes in the datamodell and application once you made this assumption, are painful, result in discussions like this and most likely wont be made in the first place or not committed back, resulting in forks all over the place."

At the risk of offending Malte even further, I might suggest that he follow his own advice and to be even more cautious when removing or changing fundamental aspects of the datamodel and code base that has served so many people so well for so many years.

I'm not opposed to well thought-out changes However willy-nilly changes that are made because of a one-off problem with a client, without public discussion of the problem and possible solutions, are a problem. And such changes should not be made unless the person proposing and making them are willing to spend the time to track down potential problems and to make the commitment to fix them afterwards.