I'm working on a personal project problem. It's a donation management model. I need to link donations to entities. For example, the original set of entities that donate are Families, Companies, and Individuals. I want to link donations to these entities and interrelate entities to each other. Is there an example of designing this model where entities could expand and relationships don't get impacted?
A:
You need to create an entity for donations, contacts, types in the least. A basic idea:
types { id, TypeName } for families, companies, individuals
contacts { id, first name, last name , typeid, add1, addr2 .....}
donations { id, contactID, amount, other fields....}
websch01ar
2010-08-12 18:23:58
what happens when 'types' expands. I need something loosely coupled
Chris
2010-08-12 18:30:55
If there is a new classification of type, you merely add a new record to the Types table. So lets say a Civic organization like an Alumni Association. You would then have Family, Business, Individual and Alumni Association in the Types table.
websch01ar
2010-08-12 18:38:58
A:
You could always store the data in one table as structures and then have lookup tables for metadata, like the last time a donor was contacted, and add new data structures at will
Don
2010-08-12 21:11:01