I have worked on a timesheet application application in MVC 2 for internal use in our company. Now other small companies have showed interest in the application. I hadn't considered this use of the application, but it got me interested in what it might imply.
I believe I could make it work for several clients by modifying the database (Sql Server accessed by Entity Framework model). But I have read some people advocating multiple databases (one for each client).
Intuitively, this feels like a good idea, since I wouldn't risk having the data of various clients mixed up in the same database (which shouldn't happen of course, but what if it did...). But how would a multiple database solution be implemented specifically?
I.e. with a single database I could just have a client register and all the data needed would be added by the application the same way it is now when there's just one client (my own company).
But with a multiple database solution, how would I create a new database programmatically when a user registers? Please note that I have done all database stuff using Linq to Sql, and I am not very familiar with regular SQL programming...
I would really appreciate a clear detailed explanation of how this could be done (as well as input on whether it is a good idea or if a single database would be better for some reason).
EDIT:
I have also seen discussions about the single database alternative, suggesting that you would then add ClientId to each table... But wouldn't that be hard to maintain in the code? I would have to add "where" conditions to a lot of linq queries I assume... And I assume having a ClientId on each table would mean that each table would have need to have a many to one relationship to the Client table? Wouldn't that be a very complex database structure?
As it is right now (without the Client table) I have the following tables (1 -> * designates one to many relationship):
Customer 1 -> * Project 1 -> * Task 1 -> * TimeSegment 1 -> * Employee
Also, Customer has a one to many relationship directly with TimeSegment, for convenience to simplify some queries.
This has worked very well so far. Wouldn't it be possible to simply have a Client table (or UserCompany or whatever one might call it) with a one to many relationship with Customer table? Wouldn't the data integrity be sufficient for the other tables since the rest is handled by the relationships?
as far as whether or not to use a single database or multiple databases, it really all depends on the use cases. more databases means more management needs, potentially more diskspace needs, etc. there are alot more things to consider here than just how to create the database, such as how will you automate the backup process creation, etc. i personally would use one database with a good authentication system that would filter the data to the appropriate client.
as to creating a database, check out this blog post. it describes how to use SMO (sql management objects) in c#.net to create a database. they are a really neat tool, and you'll definitely want to familiarize yourself with them.
to deal with the follow up question, yes, a single, top level relationship between clients and customers should be enough to limit the new customers to their appropriate data.
without any real knowledge about your application i can't say how complex adding that table will be, but assuming your data layer is up to snuff, i would assume you'd really only need to limit the customers class by the current client, and then get all the rest of your data based on the customers that are available.
did that make any sense?
See my answer here, it applies to your case as well: c# database architecture
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4833650/create-new-database-programmatically-in-asp-net-mvc-application