Rails - Oct 2008 - Design decision: Dynamically adding data question.

I need to give users the ability to optionally add metadata to
documents. Another way to state this is the fact that users need to add
at least 5 categories to a document.

Basically what I want to do is dynamically add metadata (or categories)
to a document on an ad hoc basis. Here are the options that I have
thought of:

**Option 1:**
Should I do this by dynamically creating new table columns in the
database?

**Option 2:**
Should I define 5 columns called
attirbute1,attirbute2,attirbute3,attirbute4,attirbute5 and then only use
and show them if the user requires the attributes.

**Option 3:**
Should I create a metadata table that keeps track of the columns and the
data associated with them?

What do you think is the best way to achieve this? Can you think of any
other ways to easily add this functionality. The problem is that the
functionality needs to be very generic.
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Talk" group.
To post to this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

I would create a "meta" table with two columns: "data" and
"document_id". This
way is much more neat and tidy; each metadata attribute, for each document, 
will be it''s own row. Trying to dynamically add columns or whatever
could
become disasterous. Go easy on yourself and use an AR association like this:

Document
	has_many :metas

Meta
	belongs_to :document

Document.metas will return all of the metadata attributes associated with the 
document, however many there may be.

My naming skills suck, I think you can come up with a better model name 
than "meta", but you get the idea. As far as being "very
generic"... I don''t
know what that''s supposed to mean. I hope this is generic enough for
you.


On Monday 20 October 2008 10:37:02 David Smit wrote:
> I need to give users the ability to optionally add metadata to
> documents. Another way to state this is the fact that users need to add
> at least 5 categories to a document.
>
> Basically what I want to do is dynamically add metadata (or categories)
> to a document on an ad hoc basis. Here are the options that I have
> thought of:
>
> **Option 1:**
> Should I do this by dynamically creating new table columns in the
> database?
>
> **Option 2:**
> Should I define 5 columns called
> attirbute1,attirbute2,attirbute3,attirbute4,attirbute5 and then only use
> and show them if the user requires the attributes.
>
> **Option 3:**
> Should I create a metadata table that keeps track of the columns and the
> data associated with them?
>
> What do you think is the best way to achieve this? Can you think of any
> other ways to easily add this functionality. The problem is that the
> functionality needs to be very generic.


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Talk" group.
To post to this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---