sql email notification for customers - sql

Question

I have a scenario where by I create a product on the asp.net front end and it goes into a SQL database. When creating a product I have to assign it to 3 suppliers on the font end to say that these suppliers area the only ones who supply the product.
However when I have entered the data for the product and clicked submit, the data is saved in the products table. I want it to also send an email to the assigned suppliers to say "you have been assigned to "
What is the best thing to do? I have been recommended triggers but not sure how to use them.

Answer 1

This is more of an architecture question than a SQL Server question, but I'm happy to give my opinion. I'm going to step back from the idea of doing it in the database and give you a different perspective on it.
What you are describing falls in the territory of business rules, and putting business rules in the database, especially in triggers, can make your application more complicated to understand and maintain.
Instead, I would recommend creating a service layer and coordinate all business rules like this in the service layer instead of mixing them into the database. That way the database has one job (a single responsibility) and that is to store the data... it doesn't need to know anything else.
Personally, I like organizing my code this way as it makes it easier to unit test and makes it easier to adhere to SOLID principles.
Please bear with me for an example... In C#, you might have a class that looks something like this:
class ProductService
{
private Database _database;
private Notifier _notifier;
public ProductService(Database database, Notifier notifier)
{
_database = database;
_notifier = notifier;
}
public void AddProduct(Product product)
{
_database.SaveProduct(product);
NotifySuppliersAboutProduct(product);
}
private void NotifySuppliersAboutProduct(Product product)
{
foreach (var supplier in product.Suppliers)
{
NotifySupplierAboutProduct(supplier, product)
}
}
private void NotifySupplierAboutProduct(Supplier supplier, Product product)
{
// TODO: Construct email to/subject/body variables here
_notifier.SendEmail(to, subject, body);
}
}
ProductService is just coordinating the work by assembling other classes it needs and calling them to accomplish something, in this case Adding a product.
Database is a class that handles all interfacing with the database.
Notifier is a class that handles all email sending.
I hope this idea helps or at least gives you another option to consider. Good luck!