Databases
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PO
 

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    <p>"Given the requirement for allowing users to create their own types,"</p> <p>"do you prefer key/value pairs" Depends. In the general case, described above, it might be a problem. In the specific case of adding a few columns (described in the comments on this answer) it's the obvious and simple solution.</p> <p>"or utilizing the database itself" In a way.</p> <p>"There most prominent issue I see with this approach is the sheer number of tables that might ultimately exist" This is largely irrelevant -- you have no real evidence what the number of user-defined types could possibly be.</p> <hr> <p>When you're allowing the users to add their own types, you're creating a framework. Not an application.</p> <p>You have stuff to support your built-in types.</p> <p>You have tools and utilities that will support additional extension types.</p> <p>The "users" are simply plugging their code into your framework.</p> <p>"But I want end-users, not programmers to use this". Bad idea. Civilian, non-programmers will not create their own types. Only programmers are equipped to understand the concepts in creating their own types.</p> <p>Since you're creating a framework, try and simplify things so that programmers can add their own types without pain.</p>
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    1. POWhat's a good approach for allowing users to define their own custom types?
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    1. USS.Lott
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    1. COThere are some cases where it does make sense for users to define types via meta-data. They are usually little more than a defined set of named text fields, and they are created through a (usually) user-friendly UI. Often they are used for some very specific business rule which no one dreamt of at the time the system was designed, and they may only be in use for a few months. For these situations, it makes a lot more sense for the system to be flexible enough to handle such type rather than require a programmer to create and compile something.
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      1. USFrustratedWithFormsDesigner
    2. COAssume a web app that allows users to manage their own data, a PIM of sorts. (This wouldn't be the first application of its kind.) One user wants to track books he's read or wants to read. Another wants to track his contacts; he may even have particular facts he cares about not available in most online address books. The list goes on. Lots of users, though they might not use our jargon, I think, can handle the concept of tracking attributes for a type. It's hardly more than creating a spreadsheet with column names, which lots of people do.
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      1. USMario
    3. COAdding a few columns is not even in the same realm as allowing definition of custom types. For that key/value pairs does everything you need, and very, very simply. The "cost" of this is microscopic. Also, please update the vague question with these specifics.
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      1. USS.Lott
 

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