Re: Some questions, some usability complaints
Hi Scott,
found this post this morning. This is exactly what I want to do, I have a large data dictionary of all of the common types that the database schema should use.
The old database I have inherited is full of problems with primary keys and foreign keys being different sizes, not to mention things like Zipcode being anywhere from 10 to 255 characters long, depending on who inserted it and at what stage of development it was done! As the schema has a couple of hundred tables and what seems to be random field sizes for the same sort of information, it is a complete nightmare to maintain!
(We had a major performance problem when I was temping here over Christmas and I managed to improve performance on one query from 20 seconds to under 0.1 seconds just by changing the foreign key on one table to match the primary key size (Big Int 13 to Big Int 20). That got me a permanent position here :-) )
With the new schema for the replacement project, I want to avoid this by having the data dictionary and was looking at a way to implement it in Workbench. The only reference I have found is your message saying "use user-defined types", but searching the documentation and Google, I haven't found anything useful on how to actually do this.
Can you give me a pointer in the right direction? I'm relatively new to Workbench, having used Select and Erwin in the past, so please forgive me if I am overlooking the obvious...
Edit: Okay, managed to work it out now. I found the User Types window, but couldn't get it to allow a definition. Frustrating having the only option on right clicking to be "Delete"... Having an Insert option that does the same as the double click or start typing might be useful to get people started...
But anyway, it is working now and I am a happy bunny! :-)