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Software Engineering

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    I don't see how you can easily deduce which concrete object to retrieve from the database if you get ID 42. Unless there is additional 'type information' in the URL, you would need to query all 'derived' BusinessObject tables. And with the additional 'type information', I don't see an advantage for a system-wide unique ID. Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 11:37
  • @BartvanIngenSchenau Am still in the early design stages and am just playing with ideas so hadn't thought of that. I guess I'd need a column in the business object table to indicate the class of the object being queried. Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 11:45
  • Your BusinessObject table is the way to go, but you might need one for each major type of business object. This sort of thing is absolutely necessary if the data is to be distributed. Keep in mind that you will need two "primary keys": an internal one assigned by your database, and an external one that links to other databases (if the data is distributed). For example, an Employee table would have two keys: internal employee number, and Social Security number (or your equivalent) which identifies human beings uniquely (assuming that one person cannot be two employees in your system). Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 18:01