I’m a beginner with SQL and am working on one of my first databases. I am trying to create a very cut-down shopping cart and am currently working on getting the database together before I start coding the site.
One of the things I am struggling with is how to structure the products portion of the database. If all my products were individual items it would be ok. My problem is thatI would also like the ability to create ‘packages’ of sorts that would combine several products into one Package/product with its own unique ID but different price.
Has anyone tackled this before…Heck, I am sure someone has. My question is: Is there a best practice way to structure the database tables to allow for this sort of thing? Logic-wise I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this one.
Ayende Rahien (of RhinoMocks) has recently been doing a series on building a shopping cart, starting here: http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2008/12/07/designing-a-shopping-cart.aspx. It does use a class diagram but you should be able to convert the concept into a database diagram.