[thelist] 2 items - Database (application) structure and password access

[Joshua Olson]

I don't have a lot of time to answer, but I can point out one thing:

: Next, I'd like to include default configurations for the client, so that a
: daily session w/o changes to the defaults would be a matter of merely
: hitting a button/checkbox/whatever.  However, I cannot clearly see a
: good way to do this.  It would have to be editable by the client, so I
: can't make the value(s) a table default - can I?  Is there a way to modify
: a table's default entry for a column w/o dropping and recreating the
table?
: And, without the subsequent reentry of all data?

You probably do not want to use table defaults to do this since it is most
likely that each user will want separate defaults.  You best bet is going to
be to store the default configuration in a separate table somewhere OR add a
default configuration id to the client's record which points to session
information that it should pull the default information.  The downside to
the latter technique is that it requires that the client actually use the
default settings at least once.  This would not work if someone wanted to
set up defaults as a starting point but never actually use the "vanilla"
settings.

So, your most likely bet again is to store the default settings per client
in a separate table.

A quick comment about the master table concept.  I'm not really too sure
what you have in mind exactly, but do remember that hashing lots of info
into a single field (aka mass-denormalizing) makes updating a serious pain
in the rump.  So, if you do indeed decide to keep some configurations
predefined, denormalize the heck out of the tables... just be ready to write
some pretty hefty (straightforward though) queries to keep everything
inline.

HTH,
-joshua