[Relfs-devel] Data model

[Vincenzo a. N. N. <vin...@ya...>]

Just a couple of questions about the data model: 

1. beerfun at users dot sf dot net has suggested, if I don't 
misinterpret her, to use a db schema where plugins can find their data 
somewhat by the type of data they address: a classification could be 
made allowing them to declare what mimetypes, from a standard list of 
those, that they index, and to get in exchange from the system access 
to tables specific to that mimetype. The idea could be to exploit the 
multiple schema feature of postgres to have a namespace for each used 
mimetype, a public namespace to share common information and a private 
namespace for each plugins. Would this be overkill for queries?

2. it might be interesting to provide applications an interface to 
create types on the database, where each type is a tuple of either 
basic sql types or other types and is translated to a table with 
columns for attributes of basic types and external keys for attributes 
of other user-defined types. But perhaps it's just simpler and more 
powerful to leave the raw db interface to the application. Someone 
willing to suggest tools and libraries to type a database which can be 
used with C++ and is relatively easy to use? I don't mean a full 
object-relational mapping with object persistence, just a typed way to 
declare tables.

3. And what about data protection? Would it be worth to have a DB user 
for each plugin, with ACLs set right to access shared tables, or is it 
more natural to allow each plugin to access and modify the whole data 
hierarchy?

Bye

Vincenzo