schema for storing different varchar fields over time?

Posted by Henry on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Henry
Published on 2010-05-14T19:59:51Z Indexed on 2010/05/14 20:04 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 264

Filed under:

sql-server-2005

|

schema

|

hibernate

|

coldfusion

This app I'm working on needs to store some meta data fields about an entity. The problem is that we can already foresee that these fields are going to change a lot in the future. I'm using Hibernate (in ColdFusion) and each entity's properties are translated to one column in the entity table, but altering table columns later down the raod will be costly and error-prone right?

Should I go for something like this?

MetaDataField
-----
metaDataFieldID (PK), name

FieldValue
----------
EntityID (PK, FK), metaDataFieldID (PK, FK), value [varchar(255)]

Is this common? Anything to watch out for?

p.s. I also thought of using XML on SQL Server 05+. After talking to some ppl, seems like it is not a viable solution 'cause it will be too slow for doing certain query for reporting purposes.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about sql-server-2005

[MAJ] SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - La version gratuite de SQL Server 2005

as seen on ASP-PHP.net - Search for 'ASP-PHP.net'
Modification technique pour le site de l'article. >>> More
SQLAuthority News – Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
If you are still using SQL Server 2005 – I suggest that you consider migrating to later version of the SQL Server 2008/2008 R2. Due to any reason, you wanted to continue using SQL Server 2005, I suggest that you take a look at the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4. There are many… >>> More
SQL Server 2005 - Syncing development/production databases

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've got a rather large SQL Server 2005 database that is under constant development. Every so often, I either get a new developer or need to deploy wide-scale schema changes to the production server. My main concern is deploying schema + data updates to developer machines from the "master" development… >>> More
Displaying the Row Number in a SELECT Query with SQL Server 2005

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
SQL Server 2005 introduced a function that is very handy when you want the result set to have row numbers assigned to each returned row. >>> More
Displaying the Row Number in a SELECT Query with SQL Server 2005

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
SQL Server 2005 introduced a function that is very handy when you want the result set to have row numbers assigned to each returned row. >>> More

Related posts about schema

Active Directory and Apple's Workgroup Manager

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I thought I'd share my experiences here. I work for a small business with only ~20 users. I wanted the ability to use managed client preferences to assign things like the software update server. Basically the ability to manage my Macs easily and in a native way. At first I tried the magic triangle… >>> More
SQL SERVER – How to Compare the Schema of Two Databases with Schema Compare

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Earlier I wrote about An Efficiency Tool to Compare and Synchronize SQL Server Databases and it was very much well received. Since the blog post I have received quite a many question that just like data how we can also compare schema and synchronize it. If you think about comparing the schema manually… >>> More
Copy a domain in old schema to new schema with a procedure in postgresql

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
How do we copy a domain in old schema to new schema using a procedure in postgresql? >>> More
Star Schema vs Snowflake Schema performance

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi... I'm begin to developing a scial sharing website so I'm curious about database design Schema... So in Data-Mining Star-Schema is the best one but how about a social sharing website... And as a nature of the SS websites there will be (i hope :)) many users in same time... Which better for performance… >>> More
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/transaction/interceptor/TransactionInterceptor

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am trying to integrate spring 3.1.1 with hibernate 4.0. This is my dispatcher-servlet.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop" xmlns:context="http://www… >>> More