You should be able to pull it off with three tables. The first one defines the categories.
Categories --------------- CategoryID (PK) Name Description etc. The next one defines what fields are associated with each category. CategoryFields -------------------------- FieldID (PK) CategoryID (FK -> Categories) FieldName The last one defines the values for each field in each ad. AdFieldValues ---------------------- ID (PK) AdID (FK -> Ads) FieldID (FK -> CategoryFields) Value Okay, maybe four tables if you count the existing Ads table. Ads ----- AdID (PK) CategoryID (FK -> Categories) etc. So each ad (Ads) belongs to a category (Categories) which has one or more fields (CategoryFields). Thus each ad has one or more fields and a value for each field (AdFieldValues). That works if each field is plain text (<input type="text">) and you're not doing anything fancy with the data (like searching for homes between $125,000 - $150,000). Before you get too far involved you might want to see if you can find a CMS that does all of this for you. Patrick On 11/24/06, Doug Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am in the process of re-designing a classifieds system and was just > wondering a few things. Currently there is just one standard for to fill out > for the ads. I am thinking of designing it to where it is more useful. I > would like to make the form as dynamic as possible by having different inputs > for different categories of items. The thing is, that I would imagine I would > need to have a databse table for each category. Am I correct in this > assumption? Building the forms would be the easy part, but having say 50 > different tables of info for all categories would be a nightmare. Any > suggestion would be appreciated. > > IE: > > [Real Estate Form] > > Price > Bedrooms > Bathrooms > Garage > Sq. Ft. > Acreage > Covenants > etc. etc. > > [Auto Form] > > Make > Model > Year > Miles > etc. etc. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:261636 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
