I'm wondering if others will share ideas on how they handle custom data. This is data that is added to the schema at runtime, by the applicaiton.

Example. Say I'm writing a shopping cart, and it naturally has a dbo.Products table. I deploy my application, and I want to hav ethe option of "Custom Data" on the products table. So maybe an end user, can add a field called "Product Color".

I know of several ways to accomplish this.

Option #1. Add an dbo.Products.ExtraData column, and store XML. This is pretty flexible, and with the SQL2005 XML support, not a bad option. Crappy option for other databases without robust XML support at the column level. With a good custom field schema this sounds promising, with nice LLBLGen support.

Option #2. Create a set of Custom Data Tables, ie: dbo.CustomDataColumn, dbo.CustomData etc, to store the extra data. This has nice LLBLGen support as well, that is a little more dynamic across databases.

Ideas? Discussion? Pointers?

I'd go for the first option keeps the design more intact IMHO

I'd say the second option as it allows you to use LLBLGen Pro's predicate system for queries.

Jeff...

Also there are custom code sections in the generated entity classes. You can add code here and it won't get overwritten.

JimFoye wrote:

Also there are custom code sections in the generated entity classes. You can add code here and it won't get overwritten.

I'm not sure how this would apply to storing custom data for the user. Could you elaborate?

BOb

I'd say the second option as it allows you to use LLBLGen Pro's predicate system for queries.

The first option is possible with the current predicate system(check the following thread), and the future predicate system (most probably XQurey support will be available)

http://www.llblgen.com/TinyForum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=4577