Stabilize the current platform db inconsistancies

In the DB there are some inconsistencies: such as some games saying "NES" and 
others saying "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)".

This causes plablems with:

-Advanced Site Search
-Search Results
-Browse by platform (planned/started)
-API Calls & Results

Solution Steps:

1. Normalize the games db table to standardised platform values.
{ie. convert all "NES" games to "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)" and so 
forth}.

2. Change the platform field in the games db table to be relational to the id 
of that specific platform in the platforms db table.
{i.e. instead of the Games.Platform field having a value of "Sega Genesis" it 
will have a value of "18".... where 18 is the id of the sega genesis row in the 
platform db table}
Once this is done, any further updates of the platforms table will cascade 
throughout the db and site, thus negating any further inconsistencies.

3. At this stage, wherever a platform is shown on the site, the id of the 
platform will be shown instead of the textual name - all related sql queries 
will need to be updated with a simple JOIN that looks up the platform name from 
it's id.

Area's that need queries updating are:
-Game Details Page
-Search Results/Advanced Search Results
-Browse by platform results(planned/started)
-API Results
-Certain Admin Stats Results

4. After stage 3 is completed there still remains the issue of updating any 
platform input on the site to reference the platform id rather than the 
platform name.

Input areas that need updating to this are:
-Advanced Search Panel
-Browse by platform results(planned/started)
-Administrator Only Choose Platform Popup Window

Original issue reported on code.google.com by a...@penoval.co.uk on 29 May 2011 at 7:07

dave7y / thegamesdb

Stabilize the current platform db inconsistancies #126