Should I run for the hills?

Just agreed to a web project, basically redesign from the ground up. Lots of ui and navig开发者_StackOverflow社区ation issues necessitated this redesign. In evaluating the project was allowed to trudge through the existing sites code. This curled my toes, saw lots of functions with names like getSubSubSubSubSubProductCategory and getSubCategorySubCategory. I just chalked that up to really bad naming/coding. I didn't consider the underlying db might be as f'd up. I was wrong. Same scary ass table names and on top of that there's 97 friggin tables! I'm not even sure this site sells 97 products.

Would you ever consider working with a db like this? or would you be honest and tell the client he's got a real mess on his hands?

97 tables doesn't necessarily mean a bad design. Normalization means a higher table count than a denormalized design, so it's not necessarily bad.

With that said, I can't judge the design based on what you've posted.

I don't know if the same people who did the bad naming on the web and middle tier created the database. The only way to figure out whether someone smart did the database is to look at it. Check naming, of course, but also look at the degree of normalization, proper keys, good indexes, etc.

Whether or not to take on the gig depends on how much you need the gig and whether you want the challenge. Fixing a big mess might be satisfying: you might become the guy who drained the swamp.

No, be honest, you'll regret it bitterly later if you don't, as you'll never produce a decent solution in a reasonable time.

Also, bear in mind that your client probably knows his system is ghastly, and will respect your giving him a candid, professional opinion.

Finally, assuming he listens, and accepts your analysis, you're in a good position to re-negociate.

This totally depends on your client's expectations.

To me, it doesn't matter how hungry you are - if the client doesn't have reasonable expectations of how much time/work it's going to take, than walk away..

Having said that, it's your job to inform him of his mess. Take a day, do a cursory analysis and show the client the concerns you have. Then, take the time you think it's going to take and double it (maybe triple). Give your client that number and see how they react.

Sounds interesting!

can learn much from such tasks embrace it ;)

UPDATE:

Always trust your instincts.

I definitely should have run for the hills.