Re: Re: Efficiency MySQL question

I do become more and more interested in why there is as yet no module that allows you to store items with meta data (like armor bonus, attackt bonus...ect, different attribs for each item) in a database.

I do this all the time, using standard database modules.

The two primary tactics I use are:

Meta-data goes in a separate table, with columns for base object ID, attribute ID, and value.
Meta-data goes in a hash that automatically gets packed and unpacked with something like Storable as it's fetched/inserted.

Both work, with some degree of tradeoffs in terms of performance under different types of query regimens.

Comment on Re: Re: Efficiency MySQL question

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Re: Re: Re: Efficiency MySQL question by eric256 (Parson) on Nov 18, 2003 at 21:08 UTC
I have two particular projects that each use one of those tactics. The problem with the first is speed and query building (not hard just has to be done) and the second hides that data away where it can't be easily queried. It would be awesome to have a module that gave you answers in a hash, let you edit it, and then put it back into its prospective parts of tactict 1 (for lack of better nameing). Of course then you have to deal with more complex data structures than a hash, arg, the whole thing quickly grows out of hand. Any ideas? Should this be a new topic or am i all alone here? :) ___________ Eric Hodges	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Efficiency MySQL question by simonm (Vicar) on Nov 19, 2003 at 18:32 UTC
The problem with the first is speed and query building ... and the second hides that data away where it can't be easily queried. Yup. I'm using metadata tables for cases in which most of the information is stored this way, and packed hashes for cases in which most of the data is in normal columns and only a few extras need to be packed away. While I do think this technique is useful, I haven't yet found a way to abstract this into a general-purpose solution. Both kinds of implementation are reasonably easy to code as a layer over one of the standard RDBMS-OO mapper frameworks, like Class::DBI or my own DBIx::DBO2.	[reply]