Client: “Can you update one field on our handheld inventory application?”

Jim: “Sure! That will be easy!!” (my downfall!)

Eight hours later I just want to stab myself with a rusty screwdriver and end it all!

The Story:

The handheld application in question was written in Visual CE. The user enters some information in a form, and when they sync the handheld at their desktop that information gets written to a Microsoft Access database. Then there is a Powerbuilder application that imports the data from Access and inserts it along with some additional data into Oracle.

Easy!

I modify the form with Visual CE. Add a few additional fields to Access and do some testing. Everything works. Then I dive into Powerbuilder.

Uh oh.

It seems the person who originally developed the application decided to use completely different field names in Access and Oracle…

Oracle: QUEST1, NOTE1, QUEST2, NOTE2, etc…

Access: q2, q2_comment, q3, q3_comment

The real fun begins when I realize q2 != quest2.

No, q2 = quest1! OK – so they are off by one. No problem!

Not quite.

Somewhere along the way I noticed there was no QUEST17. Instead that = CLEANLINESS.

Joy.

And q7 = QUEST18.

&!%$^@^@#%@%*&

Is it Friday yet?

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The Bad Database Design – Why? by Jim, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.