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POProducts database design for product lines, categories, manufacturers, related software, product attributes, etc
 

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  1. POProducts database design for product lines, categories, manufacturers, related software, product attributes, etc
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    <p>I am redeveloping the front end and database for a medium size products database so that it can support categories/subcategories, product lines, manufacturers, supported software and product attributes. Right now there is only a products table. There will be pages for products by line, by category/subcategory, by manufacturer, by supported software (optional). Each page will have additional filtering based on the other classifications.</p> <p>Categories/Subcategories (multi level) Products and product lines can be assigned to multiple category trees. Up to 5 levels deep should be supported.</p> <p>Product lines (single level) Groups of products. Product can only be in single product line.</p> <p>Manufacturers (single level) Products and product lines can be assigned to single manufacturer.</p> <p>Supported software (single level) Certain products only work with one or more softwares, so a product/line can be assigned to none, one or more softwares.</p> <p>Attribues (type / options - could be treated so each type is a category and items are children) Products and product lines can be assigned attributes (eg - color > red / blue / green). Attributes should be able to be assigned to one or more categories.</p> <p>Since all these items are basically types of subcategories, do I put them all together in a master table OR split them into separate tables for each one?</p> <p>Master table idea:</p> <p>ClassificationTypes (product line, category/sub, manufacturer, software, attribute would all be types) <br/>-TypeID <br/>-Name</p> <p>Classifications <br/>-ClassID <br/>-TypeID <br/>-ParentClassID <br/>-Name</p> <p>ClassificationsProductsAssociations <br/>-ProductID <br/>-ClassID</p> <p>I would still need at least one more table to link types together (eg - to link attributes to a category) and a way to link product lines to various types.</p> <p>If I go with a table for each type it can get messy quick and I will still need a way to link everything together.</p> <p>Multiple table setup:</p> <p>Categories <br/>-CategoryID <br/>-Name <br/>-ParentCategoryID</p> <p>CategoriesAssociations <br/>-CategoryID <br/>-ProductID <br/>-ProductLineID ?</p> <p>Attributes <br/>-AttributeID <br/>-Name <br/>-ParentAttributeID (use this as the parent would be "color" and child would be "red")</p> <p>AttributesAssociations <br/>-AttributeID <br/>-ProductID <br/>-CategoryID (do I also need to link the category to the parent attribute?)</p> <p>CompatibleSoftware <br/>-SoftwareID <br/>-Name</p> <p>CompatibleSoftwareAssociations <br/>-SoftwareID <br/>-ProductID <br/>-ProductLineID ?</p> <p>Manufacturers <br/>-ManufacturerID <br/>-Name</p> <p>ProductLines <br/>-ProductLineID <br/>-ManufacturerID <br/>-Name</p> <p>Products <br/>-ProductID <br/>-ProductLineID <br/>-ManufacturerID <br/>-Name</p> <p>Other option for associations is to have a single associations table to link the tables above:</p> <p>Master Associations <br/>-ProductID <br/>-ProductLineID <br/>-ManufacturerID <br/>-CategoryID <br/>-SoftwareID <br/>-AttributeID</p> <p>What is the best solution?</p>
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