On Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:09 PM Paul Novitski <mailto:paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said: > Are you considering keeping all the levels of your data tree in a > single table because you can't predict how many levels there will > be? If you CAN predict its depth, wouldn't it be simpler and easier > to conceive, code, and debug with N tables chained in parent-child > relationships? > > I'm not asking rhetorically but seriously, for discussion. How are > you weighing the pros & cons of using MPTT? Good question. In my case it is not possible to determine the depth of each product's attributes. We deal with many different manufacturers and they all set their products up differently. Some have (maybe) one attribute while others can have four or five. I wouldn't doubt that sometime in the future I will see six or more. Also, I personally prefer not to hard code values and to instead make everything flexible. I've done that in the past and it kicks my butt when requirements change and I have to go through and "fix" things. I prefer a slightly higher learning curve in the beginning for greater flexibility in the future. Lastly, I don't know if you're familiar with MPTT but it's actually quite easy to work with once you have a stable set of functions to manipulate the tree. (I got mine from the Sitepoint article where I learned about it a few years ago.) Hope that answers your question. Chris. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
