Essential Database Design: Five Fields Every Table Must Have
Incorporating these fields into every table significantly simplifies the auditing process. They enable you to track who created or modified an entry and when these actions occurred. It’s important to note that while this doesn’t provide a complete audit trail, not all tables require exhaustive audit trails. These fields deliver sufficient oversight for many applications.
Utilizing the deleted_at field for soft deletions boosts data recovery and error correction capabilities, enabling businesses to effortlessly restore mistakenly deleted data or perform historical data analysis without relying on intricate backup systems. Additionally, you can set up a cron job to transfer data to an archive table periodically. For instance, you might move all data marked as deleted over three months ago to cold storage. This strategy helps maintain manageable table sizes by systematically archiving older records.
These fields might seem superfluous at first, but they are incredibly useful for controlling user access to specific rows within a table. For instance, you may want to prevent a user from updating a row that was created by someone else. By using these fields, you can define such permissions clearly and effectively. Furthermore, they enable more nuanced scenarios—for example, allowing a user to restore a deleted row only if they were the original creator, while still permitting any user to delete a row. This level of detailed control ensures both data integrity and adherence to specified access protocols.
