Steve had some questions on using existing tables for custom or special needs within the system. We ended up talking about possible black box database tables - format "bb_53_some_table_name" - where "bb_" deals with a prefix, basically saying black box or custom database table, then the corp id, and then the custom table name.

Steve is leaning towards the verbiage of "enterprise systems" vs "master corporations". This deals with using a new system (world or corporation) and housing aggregated totals in that world or system (consolidated data for multiple corps). Anyways, Steve is starting to use the terms enterprise system to meant that holding container.

Getting into aggregated totals and auto processes. We talked for quite a while about either building just in time tools that populate the aggregated totals and/or building something on the serves that runs some kind of automated process, say like a scheduled task that either runs once a day or multiple times a day, depending.

Alan jumped on and we talked about observers and subscribers - another way of saying watchers and feeders and triggers. Basically, he is wanting to get objects, per server, being stored per server (almost a mini cache of sorts), and then keying off of changes (events or triggers). Minimal effort on updates. Set the updates and then do a push type approach if anything changes. Often we just use the pull type technology (go get the data every time). Using a push type method we may change the flow and then the things are only updated when a real change or updates occurs. Other than that, it continues using the stored data, until changed by the push.

We then chatted about the invoice due date project and showing warnings for late or outstanding invoices. We talked about showing things on a top or admin type level, showing color coded warnings, no totals, with links back to data 0 and online bill pay options. Help them be aware and then just get it paid, don't rub the values or dollar amounts in their face.