“Ragu” Summary

“Ragu” is the codename used for the main databse used by a CIB hosted competition. Each hosted comp will have a seperate Ragu database associated with it. The CIB server itself will have a seperate database to coordinate the user access to specific databases, as well as archiving and other non-comp specific roles.

The codename “Ragu” was chosen as during the DB schema design more and more stuff was being placed into the schema, reminding the designers of the old Ragu pasta sauce commericial: “It's in there” for yes nearly everything is in there. The other name considered was “Kitchen Sink” for very much the same reasons — it has every but the kitchen sink.

The database scheme itself is nearly SQL92 compliant and should be easily portable to a non-PostGreSQL RDBMS if needed. The only non-standard features used are PostGreSQL's serial field (which almost all RDBMS support in some fashion, whether its called atuo-incrementing, etc) and PostGreSQL's version of Rules/triggers which with minor renaming should be portable.

The database scheme can be found in html form on the sourceforge project page for compinabox under Design/Interfaces. The source LaTeX is under cvs control at sourceforge and the pdf version will be availble as a file.

Each class of components (ie SlidingDoors and any other competing registration software) will have its own PostGreSQL account with appropriate access to the tables of the database.