>>Hello,
>>
>>In the past I have broken data normalization rules but I am swearing that off :) I also want some table columns to be defined in a data driven way.
>>
>>I'm asking for help to see if I am missing something important. Please give me your comments and criticism as I need to make a choice soon and don't want to make a bad one.
>>
>>Say you have the following tables:
>>1. Header Table
>> header_id, other fields
>>2. Child Table
>> child_id, header_id, other fields
>>3. Table with name and value of "virtual fields" of child table - One record for each virtual column that has a non default value
>> Virtual_id, child_id, ColumnName, ColumnValue
>>4. Data dictionary with name of all possible "virtual fields" of child table - Contains description of all possible virtual columns
>> ColumnName,ColumnType,ColumnWidth,ColumnPrecision
>>
>>I am considering the following approach to integrate data from tables 2 and 3 during user edits:
>>I use Codemine framework which makes it relatively easy to go the cursor approach.
>>- Create either an object or a cursor with the following properties / fields
>> child_id, header_id, other fields from child table, VirtualColumn1, VirtualColumn2, VirtualColumn3 etc
>>- Update base tables as user makes changes
>>
>>All comments highly appreciated.
>>
>>Alex
>
>3 and 4 is a typical EAV design. This design has known problems (hard to work with), but in some cases it's used. I suggest to do some reading on EAV model before starting this adventure.

That is a wonderful lead, Naomi. Thank you.

Alex