“Northwind Elixir Traders” updated: all tables modeled

The second part of Chapter 11 of the “Northwind Elixir Traders” book is now available. This release completes Chapter 11, which proved to be the longest so far, despite initial appearances that it would be rather straightforward.

After a long break due to other professional engagements (three of which, happily Elixir-related!), I bring you a short new chapter of the “Northwind Elixir Traders” book on modeling the final table of the original Northwind Traders database: the OrderDetails table. Plus, minor improvements to the previous chapter.

With that final table in place and all data imported thanks to the DataImporter module continuing to pay dividends, the main mission of the book is complete! We now have a “Northwind Elixir Traders” database in place, with all the original data available and ready to be accesssed with queries.

That doesn’t mean that the development of the book is over, however. Beyond queries, I want to use the next chapters to:

1. improve the existing changesets and the validation functions in particular,
2. review and improve the material on dealing with associations (cast_assoc, put_assoc, build_assoc),
3. address other aspects of Ecto, as they are listed in the “Coming Soon” section, and
4. explore in a structured way the various business-focused improvements that can be made to the database, so that it can serve as a starting point for anyone wanting to build an ERP fit for a small business and/or as the backend of a Phoenix app.

• The book is available as PDF and ePub on Leanpub
• Join the discussion on elixirforum.com
• Leanpub invited me to a short interview about the book