Question

I have a matrix like this

              User                                   trial                      free
package1      fullaccess                             limited access             very limited access
              partial access to downloads            previews                   expiration

package2      full access                            n/a                        n/a
              full access to assets  

how would I create a schema for this scenario

Answer 1

You would be best served by having a table for permissions:

Permission (PermissionID varchar)

(Containing such things as “Full Access”, “Partial”, etc) which would be a list of available permissions.

Then create packages: I would probably combine the User+Package as just packages

Package (PackageID int, PackageName varchar)

Finally populate your join table:

PackagePermissions (PackageID int, PermissionID varchar)

Giving your users a PackageID, you can query across the tables into the granted permissions.

select PermissionID
from User
inner join Package 
  on User.PackageID = Package.PackageID
inner join PackagePermission
  on Package.PackageID = PackagePermission.PacakgeID

This gives you the ability to alter the packages over time, add packages and add new permissions easily, all the while keeping the administration of your users to a minimum.