On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 11:49:50PM -0000, richard@tortoise.demon.co.uk wrote:
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There do seem to be some very bizarre design decisions that the designers have made. For example, at the end of an academic year, when pupils are rolled up, a fresh copy of every student is made. So, a given student may appear in 5 or more distinct records in the main pupil table, each with sex, ethnic group etc fields. How often to students change their ethnic group on transition from one year group to the next? Also, some details seem saved multiple times across many tables, rather than just being saved once in a single table.
It could be that these are derived tables so it would make sense to derive the same data year on year. If they're not then they have failed to normalise the tables which will mean poor performance and data inconsistency and numerous headaches. To test whether this is the case, change the ethnic group in one year for a particular pupil and see if it changes in the other records. If it does then the data is derived or there's a stored procedure at work. It's possible that you might not be able to change this data though because it's locked.
Having said this, the help-desk staff do seem eager to resolve issues that arise, although some are outstanding.
That's a good sign. But IMHO you should get good support if you've spent a lot of money on a piece of software. What support do you get with MS SQL, client licences and an outlay of thousands?...... -- Frank *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Boroughbridge. Tel: 01423 323019 --------- PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/