Database Structure Advice Needed

Question

Im currently working on a site which will contain a products catalog. I am a little new to database design so I\'m looking for advice on how best to do this. I am familiar wit

Answer 1

I've done this before. I recommend starting with tagging (many-to-many relationship table to products). You can build a hierarchy relationship on top of your tags (tree, or nested sets, or whatever) a lot easier than on your products. Because tagging is relatively freeform, this also gives you the ability to allow people to categorize naturally and then later codify certain expected behaviors.

For instance, we had special tags like 2009-Nov-Special. Any product like this was eligible to show as a special on the front page for that month. So we didn't have to build a special system to handle rotating specials onto the front page we just used the existing tag system. Later this could be enhanced to hide those tags from consumers, etc.

Similarly, you can use tagging prefixes like: style:wood mfg:Nike to allow you to do relatively complex categorization and drilldowns without the difficulties of complex database reshuffling or the nightmares of EAV, all in a tagging system which gives you more flexibility to accommodate user expectations. Remember that users might expect to navigate the products in ways different than you as a database and business owner might expect. Using the tagging system can help you enable the shopping interface without compromising your inventory or sales tracking or anything else.