Most of you are probably familiar with The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology. Yes, other people's crappy code is hilarious, but it's also educational to see. (And maybe you ARE doing something crappy and you just hid it so well other people haven't found it yet?)

If you enjoy this type of thing (who doesn't?) and you're into databases and especially Oracle, there's a site inspired by The Daily WTF just for Oracle blunders! Check it out: Oracle WTF!

I found out about this via Tom Kyte's post, so I might as well also share some of his awesomeness:

As an aside, anyone that knows me, knows my mantra - written many times:

• You should do it in a single SQL statement if at all possible.
• If you cannot do it in a single SQL Statement, then do it in PL/SQL (as little PL/SQL as possible!).
• If you cannot do it in PL/SQL, try a Java Stored Procedure. The number of times this is necessary is extremely rare today with Oracle9i and above.
• If you cannot do it in Java, do it in a C external procedure. This is most frequently the approach when raw speed, or the use of a 3rd party API written in C is needed.
• If you cannot do it in a C external routine, you might want to seriously think about why it is you need to do it...

Ok, back to writing good code, not crappy at all! :)

The Oracle feature set is often brought up as an argument (for? against?) when comparing it against other databases. And it is indeed a huge feature set and it's pretty great to use, but granted, the Oracle documentation can be pretty dry to read.

For example, check out the documentation for the NTILE Function. Yeah, sounds kind of boring. What good could it be in the wonderful world of web development? After all, who manages employee or sales tables anymore...

Answer: generating tag clouds.

Continue reading "NTILE() - easy way to generate tag clouds " »

The February 2008 issue of php|architect features an article by Mac Newbold titled "Database Design for PHP Programmers". Here's the blurb:

While PHP can do a lot of great things by itself, it can do much more when you add a relational database. Whether you use MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MicroSoft SQL Server or SQLite, the way you design your schema and build your tables has a big impact on the abilities of your application. By the same token, mistakes in your database structure can be very difficult to fix or overcome. A little bit of careful planning can go a long way.

It's a pretty good article about database design and I think all PHP developers who are just starting to integrate databases in their applications should read it. However, there are a few things I'd like to add and point out.

Continue reading "php|architect: Database Design for PHP Programmers by Mac Newbold" »

After some consideration, I changed the name of my db manager project to dbMorph. Naming it dbSync was a little misleading as syncing really implies bringing something in sync with something else or syncing to disk, etc., while this tool is really for managing database changes.

Work is starting on 2/4 (Monday) and tomorrow I'm doing a mini presentation on how this tool will work. Here are some excerpts:

Continue reading "dbMorph - proposal excerpts" »

The working name of my database delta manager is... DbSync! It will live here: sourceforge.net/projects/dbsync.

I've never managed an open source project before, so this will be an interesting experience (any thoughts, ideas, words of warning are welcome). Work is scheduled to start Feb. 4th, 2008 as my company's graciously allowing me to use up to 50% of my time for an R&D project. Yay!