The Great DB Debate

I am currently working on an application that was very badly coded by another developer. Touching any part of the application is almost certain to embroil me in business rules, SQL statements, xhtml, Javascript, server side code or style sheets. Whatever I do, I almost always have to rely on my knowledge of the database to make a simple change to the application or fix a bug – there is no way around it. The database and the application are tightly coupled, and not even my client thinks of them as two separate entities.

I am inclined to make the decision that the business logic should live in the database, and that the database should be exposed to application developers by means of efficient and correct stored procedures. I am inclined to separate the responsibilities of team members:

• Web designers should build standards compliant web pages.
• Application developers should write server side code to fetch data from the database to be passed to templates that we built by web designers, or they should pass data to the database from the UI, responding to any errors that occur.
• A DBA should be responsible for building a database that performs well, is flexible and adheres to, expresses and applies business rules. And, the DBA should expose procedures that make the data available to developers

As far as I am concerned, the singers should sing and the dancers should dance. Even if I were the sole developer, I would be inclined to build things this way. I want it to be easy for my client to find someone to work on the application. If they want to change the look and feel, the should not have to hire someone who can write or read SQL statements.

I am attracted to ORM tools like Hibernate, or, in my word-a-day Microsoft centric world, NHibernate. I like SQLAlchemy, and SQLObject, and I agree with the goal they try to achieve. Application developers should be spared the pain and inconvenience of dealing directly with the database. Not all developers are able to build a good database, and not all applications should require them to mess with SQL. Fair enough. Ruby on Rails rocks for certain types of applications, and I can see why it is catching on.

However, I CAN build a good database, and I want to. I specialize in applications that contain many rules, and run against databases that may be required to grow and change over the years. Often, my databases have been used by multiple applications, not just one. I need to know that the rules will be applied well no matter what language is used to write the application. I also need to know that the database will perform well, and I do not want to rely on the poorly written queries the developers often write. (It is not their fault, DBAs do not always write good code.)

Since the dot com meltdown, many of my clients have started to look for the one-stop-shop. They would prefer to hire one developer to do all of the work in order to control the project budget. My experience, as a consultant who often gets asked to work on somebody else’s code, is that the one-stop-shop does not work. Often, the result is a bad database sitting under an inflexible web application that is not standards compliant.

Basically, I like stored procedures, and I am suspicious of frameworks and the magic they perform. In my own free time, I can see myself playing with Ruby on Rails, Turbogears, Hibernate, or some other framework. But, I would want the flexibility to use and take advantage of my database skills. Am I being a fuddy-duddy? I like MVC frameworks, but I still want to be use my database skills.

For a discussion of what some of us experience, see this complaint about Ruby on Rails in the enterprise.

To Do Something Cool

Now that I have kids, I easily think in terms of schools years. Fall is the beginning of the year, and I am excited. Having been very sick in the last year, I want this year to be my best year in technology. Over the years, I have had the chance to work with bright people who have had great ideas. If only I had had the chance to work for companies that understood and knew how to use the ideas.

I am not saying that I understand business, or that I could have sold the ideas myself, but things never came together. However, I have been watching trends, and it is starting to happen.

When I was working for a forest products company on a supply chain application, I constructed an application that used AJAX. At the time, these techniques were called “remote scripting”. When users entered a price forecast into a page that looked like a spreadsheet, the data went into the database right away. I also provided a callback for the server to use to pass back a revenue forecast based on the production forecast for the same period. Users loved the application, and they loved not having to press a submit button.

Other developers were concerned that I was trying to rebuild Excel as a web page. Somebody once said about me: “Jim thinks Javascript is a programming language.” To see Excel functionality see Google Spreadsheets.

Ajax, and the host of new services that are being offered by Google, are part of a trend many people are calling Web 2.0. This trend is about people. It is not about functionality. It is about usefulness and ease of use, and it is about collaboration. I am excited.

When I was the director of R&D at Blastradius, I told my product manager that I would love to hire an anthropologist to be part of our product team. Designing a new product was not about technology, as far as I was concerned. It was not even about economics or marketing. How can you study the market for a service that has never existed before? How can you predict what will happen. If you have a sense of adventure, you try to make something new happen.

New things are happening now. This time it is not about the money, necessarily. The ideas are just so cool. The code is cool. The people are young. The people who were young in the nineties are now the old farts who do not get it. I cannot tell you how many non-disclosure agreements I have signed in the past 10 years. However, I can tell you one true thing: “Do not worry that someone is going to steal your ideas. If they are really that good, you are going to have to shove them down somebodies throat.”

I do not know who said the above, but I have seen it attributed to a few people. The point is: do not expect people to fall down at your feet because you have a good idea. It may take a while, but, if the idea is good, the time will come.

At the very least, I want to have some fun coding this year. My work has been getting dull. It is time to spice it up.