fivestringsurf Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 (edited) I’m writing a small application that allows me/users to add their own inputs so they can store their own data. It’s kind of like, a user defined database. Think of a super simple “filemaker” kind of application. The way I’ve set this up is like this: Table: item fields: item_id, user_id Table item_attribute Fields: item_attribute_id, item_id, name, value After my query I end up with stuff like this: $data = array( 0=>array( '123'=>array( 'name'=>'Year', 'value'=>'1985' ), '7'=>array( 'name'=>'Title', 'value'=>'Title For 1985' ), '25'=>array( 'name'=>'Length', 'value'=>'60' ) ), 1=>array( '123'=>array( 'name'=>'Year', 'value'=>'1990' ), '7'=>array( 'name'=>'Title', 'value'=>'Title For 1990' ), '25'=>array( 'name'=>'Length', 'value'=>'44' ) ), 2=>array( '123'=>array( 'name'=>'Year', 'value'=>'1965' ), '7'=>array( 'name'=>'Title', 'value'=>'Title For 1965' ), '25'=>array( 'name'=>'Length', 'value'=>'122' ) ) ); This seems to work great as there is no limit to what a user can add - it's working like I would like it to... But now that I’m trying to add sorting/filtering/pagination to results things have gotten extremely difficult on the back end. The only thing I can think of is to pull all the data and then use php algorithms to sort/filter/paginate before sending over to web page. I can see this getting slow if I eventually have to pull 1000s of records. Does anyone have advice in these matters? Should I rethink my db design? Can the results be used to create a temporary table and then sort on it? (don'n know how or if this is even possible) I need some help Thanks. Edited November 16, 2014 by fivestringsurf Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barand Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Databases were designed for filtering and sorting, it's what they do. Use the power of the query. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/#findComment-1496740 Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivestringsurf Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 @Barand, sure I can do that with regular arrangements when I'm sorting on a column/field, but with my db the way it is now; there is never a field to sort on. For example, look at my sample array. If I wanted to sort based on "Year" there is not a field labled "Year" in the database. Instead years are stored in the table: item_attribute under the field:name="Year" and field:value="1985" So a row would look like: item_attribute_id | item_id | name | value 12 | 3 | Year | 1985 Upon further investigation maybe I can I use the ORDER BY FIELD() clause/function ? And how can I retrieve specific number of rows for pagination if I'm using many rows to create "one item"? Any examples/suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/#findComment-1496773 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barand Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 I have come across this model a couple of times. My test model is attached. Basically, products belong to categories and each category would have its own set of attributes (for example a camera will have a different set of attributes from a bed). Also the attributes have a start date/end date to allow, for example, price changes over time. The technique I used was to to create a table subquery to join the required attribute values into a single row which could be sorted, filtered etc. To make life easier I created a function which took an array of the required attribute ids and generated the required subquery. See this thread reply http://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/277085-the-eav-model-or-something-better/?do=findComment&comment=1431597 Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/#findComment-1496782 Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivestringsurf Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 (edited) @Barand Funny, I didn't even know this was a "model"...I was just doing what made sense to me But boy what a nightmare to filter through stuff. I figured out I can sort like this: ORDER BY field( attribute.name, 'Year' ) DESC , value ASC But I can't limit the query in a useful way for pagination and I can't limit the scope of the search as in WHERE 'year' = 2014 ... because the year only exists as one attribute of many.It's such a headache that I'm thinking of a redesign maybe.have two tables: table: item fields: item_id, attr1, attr2, attr3 ... table: item_meta fields: item_meta_id, item_id, data_type, name This way i can perform normal operations on a single table and refer to the meta table for the user generated names, datatypes, etc. I would just have to limit the amount of attributes a user could define. so table: item would have up to say attr50 (50 fields) I wonder if this idea is some type of "model" too? Edited November 18, 2014 by fivestringsurf Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/#findComment-1496843 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barand Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 table: itemfields: item_id, attr1, attr2, attr3, ... , attr50 ... attributes a user could define Good luck! Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/292503-user-generated-tables-ala-filemaker-sortingfilteringpagination/#findComment-1496857 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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