All, Love using struts and enjoy this informative mailing list. This email is a bit off topic but alas, this is the list I subscribe to and I figure I'll definitely get an informed response, which is what I'm looking for.
Designing a database for a client's site. The four tables in question are as follows: mysql> describe users; +---------------+--------------+------+-----+------------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +---------------+--------------+------+-----+------------+----------------+ | user_id | int(11) | | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | username | varchar(20) | | | | | | email | varchar(100) | | | | | | name | varchar(50) | | | | | | authenticated | date | | | 0000-00-00 | | | password | blob | | | | | +---------------+--------------+------+-----+------------+----------------+ mysql> describe user_role_xref; +----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | username | varchar(20) | | PRI | | | | role | varchar(50) | | PRI | | | +----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ mysql> describe user_auth_xref; +-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | user_id | int(11) | | PRI | 0 | | | auth_code | varchar(20) | | | | | +-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ mysql> describe user_type_xref; +--------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +--------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | user_id | int(11) | | | 0 | | | user_type_id | int(11) | | | 0 | | +--------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ Here's the question: Should I still use the user_id? Or, since the username will need to be unique anyways, should I use the username as the primary key? If I do, which seems to make sense, then my user_auth_xref and user_type_xref tables might get quite larger in size. Is this really an issue? Especially b/c if I forgo the user_id then things will definitely be a bit easier to code. Anybody run into anything like this? The user_role_xref table requires I use the uesrname instead of the user_id as it's for Tomcat's JDBC realm for user authentication. Thanks. -Dan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
