Denis Gerasimov wrote: > Hello list members, > > > > I am in a need of implementing custom/used-defined fields mechanism. What I > need is adding new fileds to a db table on-the-fly. > > > > There are 2 possible options I know: > > 1. Add a fixed set of text columns named custom_01, custom_02, etc. > > 2. Alter db tables dynamically by adding/dropping a column of > appropriate type and creating/dropping helper tables if needed (e.g. values > for select lists) > > > > 1st option is not suitable for in my case because of performance issues. 1 is a horrid solution but I can't see how this is such a performance issue. (not to say the issue does'nt exist, it's just that I don't see it) > > 2nd is relatively hard to implement from scratch. I would suggest this is easier than you imagine (you can grok all the required SQL from the output of phpmyadmin, for instance) - the tricky part is getting the database security right (which is more PITA than hard imho) > Any ready-to-use libs or implementation ideas would be highly appreciated! > 3. offer an interface to define the custom fields, store the definition somewhere central and use the definition to define an array (or object) which you can then serialize into a single field. 4. use a 'lookup' table and a 'custom field definition' table 'lookup': ownerid int // FK to whatever entity owns the custom fields CFD_id int // FK to 'custom field definition' value varchar 'custom field definition': id int name varchar type varchar you might want to create a set of lookup tables (1 for each *type* of custom data you are offering the enduser) - this may offer more efficient storage and retrieval. anything that is ready to use can be found via your favorite search engine, or sourceforge or something like that. > > FYI I am using Joomla! CMS and actually I need to create a Joomla! component > that should also support user-defined fields. you mean to say joomla doesn't have a plugin for this at all?? > > > > Have a great day, too late, my Jean-Luc Picard has already been assimilated. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
