On Apr 17, 2012, at 9:05 AM, Thomas Gries wrote:
Hi,
for example, the extension AJAXPoll adds and uses two new database tables to a MediaWiki installation. This specific extension could be rewritten to use only one new table.
My questions:
- Is there a policy, convention, that more than one new table should be
avoided in extensions ? 2. Are two or more new tables tolerated?
If it it required, then sure it's tolerated. Some of the extensions currently deployed on Wikipedia have lots more tables even.
Of course it goes without saying, that if you can optimize the number of tables without sacrificing performance, then by all means: Go for it.
If you could merge the tables and make it still perform well with the right database indexes, why not :)
On the other hand, if it means the table will be significantly larger, then it may be better to keep them separate. For example, I'd say it's better two tables (say, 'group' and 'item', where item.it_group refers to group.gr_id). So that you don't have to repeat all information about the group in each item-row, and if the group has to change, no need to change all item-rows.
-- Krinkle