database design

Airtable – Last Modified Date/Time

I’ve spoken about Airtable before. A perfect replacement for tracking spreadsheets and smaller database solutions for businesses and individuals, Airtable fits into that niche market where smaller FoxPro and access-like applications have been used. It recently introduced a new field type that many have had to create themselves – Last Modified Time fields. Why is this a big deal? It shows that Airtable continues to evolve on an ongoing basis. No, it hasn’t provided the much requested off-line mode but the full set of features including third party integration and team features makes Airtable a great way for people looking …

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Fieldbook: Spreadsheets on Overdrive

UPDATE: FieldBook is shutting down as of June 15th, 2018. Their co-founder, Jason Crawford, has written a great article on medium describing the reasons why. It’s always tough when businesses shut down but it is valuable to learn why. It looks like finding and engaging resources is always a challenge. Business owners and workers all over the world build applications using spreadsheets. When funds are low or time doesn’t permit, a spreadsheet can be the starting point for a new business application. It’s fast and easy. Even in larger corporations, workers take to Excel to make up for what their …

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For small DB applications, AirTable Rocks My World – it may rock yours as well!

Takeaway: Online databases are powerful and now a viable solution for any business. AirTable gives small businesses a friendly, extensible and all around powerful mobile database tool that can be used within minutes. Almost five years ago, I spoke to a group of developers and talked about different technologies and areas where database developers might want to look at. I focused on the developer – wanting to move their application development skills into a new arena. These were developers who grew up on building the small business solutions that databases provided. But businesses are different. Small businesses don’t want to …

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SQL: To Schema or not to schema?

To schema or not to schema – That is the question;Whether it is easier to find a table with a Schema.TableName ;Or to simply build one with a strong naming convention,and, by opposing schemas, force other developers to learn (and re-learn) No more, with schemas ; It’s an interesting dilemma – especially when designing a database for an organization who changes standards with almost every new development project. One recent project implemented schemas along with a naming convention so much that the schema name was repeated in the name of the table: SCHEMA.SCH_ClientName Definitely overkill. But then if I want …

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