Question

I am currently responsible for creating a web based project management application for the department I work in. Each project has a bunch of different data points that describe it and my first plan was to just set up a table in the mysql database and an html form to manage the data in that table.

My managers just let me know they will need to be able to add/delete data points for the projects in case their work flow and project tracking changes. (This would be something that happens MAYBE a few times a year if at all)

So I am attempting to figure out the best way to go about storing this data in MySQL. The first approach that came to mind was give them an interface that allows them to add columns to the ‘projects’ table. and have a ‘master’ table that tracks all the column names and data types. But that feels like a REALLY Bad idea and a bit of a nightmare to maintain.

Another possible option would be to have the interface add a new table that stores all the information for that data point AND the id of the project that is using the data.

I understand that both of these could be really screwy ways of doing things. If there is a better way I would love to hear about it. If I need to clarify something let me know.

Thank you for your time

Answer 1

CREATE TABLE projects (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
  name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
)

CREATE TABLE datapoints (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
  projectid INT NOT NULL,
  name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  value VARCHAR(250) NOT NULL,
  INDEX(projectid),
  INDEX(name)
)

If you want more fancy, do one or more of

• Put datapoint names in a table, reference them isnstead of naming them in table datapoints
• Have datapoints have a field for each of numeric, pit, text, longtext OR use different tables