Yes, they are just date fields.

I did not mean the primary key, I was meaning the main context for the data in a table row. In other tables (e.g. purchase_orders, the PO number is stored in the name column). I was thinking that in the hardware table, the field serial_number should be name instead.

As for test, yes I have learned my lesson. Needing to add 90 unit tests, before moving onto functional tests was a mistake. This refactoring will be painful to complete.

I’ll also need to add functional tests for all of the controllers as well. But I’ll fall in that pit when I come to it (i.e. after the unit tests).

By primary field do you meant the primary key? If so, it should always be an auto-incrementing integer ID.

Write your tests first or I’ll have to beat you