Over Engineered - The dreaded status column w/ Daniel Coulbourne + Cheyne Rood

The dreaded status column w/ Daniel Coulbourne + Cheyne Rood

04/19/23 • 86 min

Over Engineered is all about those things that bug you but you never get a chance to "solve." Today's episode is about the dreaded "status" column.

This is another topic that most developers will hit over and over. You have a model. You need to track the status. You add a status column, and then later a status timestamp "accepted_at", and then later an "accepted_by" column—and each time you cringe and wish there was a better way.

Today we discuss a better way... maybe?

Over Engineered is all about those things that bug you but you never get a chance to "solve." Today's episode is about the dreaded "status" column.

Today we discuss a better way... maybe?

Previous Episode

Referencing specific database records in your code

Season 1 continues with a discussion of how to deal with special database records that need to be referenced directly in code.

We've all been there before: you've got a specific vendor that you need to write a custom command for, or a certain category that needs special handling, so you either hard-code the ID or slug and shudder slightly before moving on with your life. In this episode, we imagine a better—perhaps the best, even—way!

Next Episode

What about event sourcing?

In this episode we indulge in the purest form of Over Engineering—a 90 minute discussion of a completely different application paradigm/architecture. Our team has used event sourcing to some degree, and we're considering using it more heavily in the future. But before we do, we're going to step back and ask ourselves if it's worth it...

Some useful links: