Sorry if this has been asked before: I am developing a month-to-month service similar to http://www.basecamphq.com/ and planning to operate it on a hosting site. I plan to simply deploy a copy of my application for each customer with their own database instance. It doesn''t appear as if my provider allows dynamic creation of databases, which leads to my question: Does it even make sense to create a production database for each customer or should I modify my models so that customers share the tables. This would be a lot of work (24 models) - it would certainly be much DRYer though. I can imagine it would be a nightmare updating table elements on 100s of databases... What do you think? Should I look for a provider that will give me root access to MySQL or bite the bullet and do the work now? Thanks in advance. -Dave --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
> I am developing a month-to-month service similar to > http://www.basecamphq.com/ and planning to operate it on a > hosting site. I plan to simply deploy a copy of my > application for each customer with their own database instance. > > It doesn''t appear as if my provider allows dynamic creation > of databases, which leads to my question: Does it even make > sense to create a production database for each customer or > should I modify my models so that customers share the tables. > > This would be a lot of work (24 models) - it would certainly > be much DRYer though. I can imagine it would be a nightmare > updating table elements on 100s of databases... > > What do you think? Should I look for a provider that will > give me root access to MySQL or bite the bullet and do the work now?I always try to include a root object in my schemas to which everything belongs, either directly or, more often, indirectly via its ancestors. That tends to make it easy to scale horizontally by adding new root objects. I would suggest that''s probably easier than maintaining N instances of your database. The only real downside is that when you upgrade your schema, all of your customers have to upgrade at once, but that''s probably a feature rather than a bug for a hosted service like you describe. - donald --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Thanks for your reply, Donald. So then it might make sense to introduce an Account object to own all my other objects. I''m just thinking about the task list to implement: - migration to handle creating Account and adding the foreign keys to all the other tables. - Account Model with has_many relationships - add belongs_to account relationships to existing models - introduce find_by_account clause to each controller that creates an instance of the system models. - other items... So how would this work in practice with creating accounts and users? For example I''m creating a CRM system where a user can manage customer contacts and I want to log Fred in so he can manage his customers: accounts has_many users, customers user belongs_to account customer belongs_to account users has_many customers customer belongs_to user I''ll have to give this some more thought. How have you tackled this? Regards, Dave On Nov 13, 1:16 pm, "Ball, Donald A Jr (Library)" <donald.b...-GjtI+QwuxAR68HQyEA6aog@public.gmane.org> wrote:> > I am developing a month-to-month service similar to > >http://www.basecamphq.com/and planning to operate it on a > > hosting site. I plan to simply deploy a copy of my > > application for each customer with their own database instance. > > > It doesn''t appear as if my provider allows dynamic creation > > of databases, which leads to my question: Does it even make > > sense to create a production database for each customer or > > should I modify my models so that customers share the tables. > > > This would be a lot of work (24 models) - it would certainly > > be much DRYer though. I can imagine it would be a nightmare > > updating table elements on 100s of databases... > > > What do you think? Should I look for a provider that will > > give me root access to MySQL or bite the bullet and do the work now? > > I always try to include a root object in my schemas to which everything > belongs, either directly or, more often, indirectly via its ancestors. > That tends to make it easy to scale horizontally by adding new root > objects. I would suggest that''s probably easier than maintaining N > instances of your database. The only real downside is that when you > upgrade your schema, all of your customers have to upgrade at once, but > that''s probably a feature rather than a bug for a hosted service like > you describe. > > - donald--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
On 14 Nov, 15:55, Dave <dfdumar...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:> > I''ll have to give this some more thought. How have you tackled this? >Hi Dave, I''m creating something similar at the moment - not a CRM, I hasten to add. In my application, an account has many users and has many contracts. Any user can amend a contract belonging to that user''s account. On that basis, it is very similar to the schema you have outlined above. By having a customer belonging to a user, it should be easy enough to restrict editing the customer''s details to that one user. I''m using the Account Location plugin on my app so that I can use urls such as accountname.myapp.com pretty much in the same vain as Basecamp. Best Regards Robin --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Excellent tip, Robin! I hadn''t heard of the Account Location plugin. It sounds like just the thing I need. Thanks and good luck with your application! This book was recommended to me today and it looks very good, so I''ll pass the link on to you. Thanks again! http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ Dave On Nov 14, 8:25 am, Robin Fisher <robinjfis...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:> On 14 Nov, 15:55, Dave <dfdumar...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote: > > > > > I''ll have to give this some more thought. How have you tackled this? > > Hi Dave, > > I''m creating something similar at the moment - not a CRM, I hasten to > add. > > In my application, an account has many users and has many contracts. > Any user can amend a contract belonging to that user''s account. On > that basis, it is very similar to the schema you have outlined above. > By having a customer belonging to a user, it should be easy enough to > restrict editing the customer''s details to that one user. > > I''m using the Account Location plugin on my app so that I can use urls > such as accountname.myapp.com pretty much in the same vain as > Basecamp. > > Best Regards > > Robin--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---