Question

I have a site that has different type of products with different specifications for each of them.

I want to be able to use only one products table with a set of columns but because columns are different depending on what type, I have to create multiple products table catering for each type. This I think is time consuming and not really effective way to manage as an ongoing solution.

Is there a good way to manage this type of scenario with the database?

I’m using Cakephp as the framework.

Answer 1

Normalise your data structure: for example, have a product_info table (with FK into the products table) that contains columns key and value to express additional information about each product.