Retromags Database Fun 101

[Phillyman]

Over the past few months I have really come to realize how crazy this entire project is. Luckily I am nearing the finish line and we will go public on the first phase of RM 2.0 very soon! One of the more recent snags was how to handle name changes. Many video game magazines out there have changed their name, but kept the numbering. So when I am putting all of this information into a database, how do I handle such a concern?

Lets take EGM2 for the first example!

Now EGM2 in our database would have a URL structure like this.....

http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2

and the individual issues would have a URL stucture like this......

http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-1
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-2
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-3
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-4
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-5

Pretty solid and understandable, but what happens when you reach EGM2 Issue 50? Now the magazine is no longer called EGM2......but Expert Gamer! Now you would have a URL structure that looks somewhat weird.....

http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-47
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-48
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/egm2-issue-49
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/expert-gamer-issue-50
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/egm2/expert-gamer-issue-51

So in the end I have decided that even though EGM2 Issue 49 will link to Expert Gamer Issue 50 (and vice versa)......that Expert Gamer issues should fall under their own parent category......

http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/expert-gamer/expert-gamer-issue-50
http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/expert-gamer/expert-gamer-issue-51

Unfortunately I did not think of this a few months ago when I created all the categories, so I will need to rename some categories and create some new ones. But this is only a small issue, but in the end it will lead to a system that is much easier to maintain.

[KiwiArcader]

If they change the name of the magazine I just keep it in a separate page but make a comment in both pages so people know. But that's me just being simplistic/minimalist

[Phillyman]

If they change the name of the magazine I just keep it in a separate page but make a comment in both pages so people know. But that's me just being simplistic/minimalist

The software I am dealing with is very powerful, but with all that power comes a huge learning curve. All 10,000 video game magazine issues are contained in 1 database, in order to do proper sorting and keep that database clean....I will need to seperate name changes into their own categories. HOWEVER, this is only for how the database holds records, I have another database that holds all the publications Now within that database, everything will appear seemless. The indexes will flow and no one will really notice. I guess I am just being OCD about the entire database

So when you are in a specific issue, Like Nintendo Power Issue 1, you won't really care how they are contained, because clicking the previous arrow will take you to Nintendo Fun Club Issue 7, and clicking the next arrow will take you to Nintendo Power Issue 2. Likewise when you are on the Nintendo Power page, you will see all 285 issues in a HTML table like our old Wiki, and clicking on any issue number will take you to the correct place.

[Mister Zero]

So when you are in a specific issue, Like Nintendo Power Issue 1, you won't really care how they are contained, because clicking the previous arrow will take you to Nintendo Fun Club Issue 7, and clicking the next arrow will take you to Nintendo Power Issue 2. Likewise when you are on the Nintendo Power page, you will see all 285 issues in a HTML table like our old Wiki, and clicking on any issue number will take you to the correct place.

This is going to be great. It's nice too because now going forward we'll have a definite foundation for the way things should be in order to keep everything simple and flowing together the right way. The way we had it worked before but this is a logical and streamlined next step.