This vendor’s application has been a headache for me for over a year now. We are getting close to upgrading, but there are some issues. One is why data in the new version is missing. I finally got the vendor to give me a query in the new version which was enough for me to figure out how to find the same data in the old version.

Everything I check between the two databases is consistently the same across the systems. So, why are the user interfaces different? See image right.

I have done a lot of querying now trying to gain some insight into the black box since the front line support workers are not getting me helpful information out of their “additional resources.” I’ve asked to talk to a DBA, but they do not respond to that part.

Something hurts my brain is that every table’s primary key is name “uri.” Yes, everything is a Uniform Resource Indicator. (If everything is an uri, then effectively nothing is an uri.) But then when TableA needs to reference something from TableB, then it actually has a column that describes what it is. Except in this one case I am struggling to understand where the recordUri does not match the record table’s uri column.

So what does it match? See image.

An annotated schema would help out so much right now.

My guess is a table moved and broke a customization.

I suspect the choice of URI as an acronym is because of the HTTP protocol. For a web site address, one has the protocol in http:// and the full qualified domain name like ezrasf.com and everything starting with the next slash after is the URI. And that is what set me off to write this post.