b]Hibernate version: 3.2[/b]

Name and version of the database you are using: any


Hi All,

I looking for the best possible solution in building a CRM like application, which amongst other features should provide the capability to the administrator to add/remove/modify fields on all entities available to the system.

Considering that the underlying persistancy is hibernate, what would be the best way to take this issue??

- Should I provide an additional table for every entity with dummy fields fo all type that should join with the "master" table?
- Another alternative would be to have a single table that would contain the values of all additional fields of the entier system, in which case every entry should contain sufficient information to reference back the appropriate "master" table.
- Finally, is dynamic manipulation of the database schema an option for hibernate? Combining such feature with dynamic mapping would possibly give me a good solution.


What are your suggestions on this case??

Thanks a lot,

Harry

IMHO there is no single best way. If you build up a number of tables, one holding the added column description, another the values, you don't have to update the mapping but you might have performance issues.

The faster approach is to change the tables and either to generate the XML or to work dynamic mappings. This will require to rebuild the sessionfactory.