Schema Question

[mattdunn]

Hi Everyone,

I would like to get some idea of what developers do in regards to tracking Contacts in a database that uses Contacts in many different ways.

For example, say a company has records for Customers, Suppliers, Employees, Advertisers and Contractors. There could be a table for each type because a Customer is different from a Supplier which is different from an Advertiser and so on. If a Supplier decides to buy something from the company then they get entered into the Customer table, thus duplicating data. Alternatively, there could be one Contacts table, but that would need fields that encompass all of the different contact types, might get a little messy.

What do you think are the best practices when confronted with this type of issue?

Thanks,

Matt

[comment]

See if this helps:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/202738/post/322775/#322775

[mattdunn]

Thanks! That does help.