Re: Category question

on the DB end, you could just store a CSV list of catagories in the catagory column... in fact this is probably the best way to stop having limits on the number of catagories a package can be in. Or theres the other way of creating a second table with id,package_id,catagory_id and just cross referencing... but this is quite a bit more work (for PHP/the RDBMS) to do... and so I'd suggest using the CSV with a simple explode. And by changing the select box to a mutliple select box (and its name to an array) you just simply implode(',',$catagories) and insert that into the DB. - Davey Xavier Noguer wrote:

BIG +1 Although this makes me think PEAR's data model will have to change: $query = "INSERT INTO packages (id,name,category,license,summary,description,homepage) VALUES(?,?,?,?,?,?,?)"; It assumes packages belong to just one category. --------- Original Message -------- From: Greg Beaver <greg@chiaraquartet.net> To: pear-dev@lists.php.net <pear-dev@lists.php.net> Subject: [PEAR-DEV] Category question Date: 18/05/03 00:03

Hi, I'd like to open a can of worms for future discussion :). When I'm trying to find a package, it is often difficult to figure out exactly which category it belongs in. Why not allow packages to fall into more than one category? For instance, the Tree class would logically be placed into Structures, DB, and XML since it is all three.

      I would really like to see PEAR become more user-friendly, and

this is definitely a way to do that. Perhaps documentation could also be generated in those categories as in: Tree docs are under Structures, and a &quot;See Structures::Tree&quot;

link (like

the Yellow Pages under Cab says &quot;See Taxi&quot;) is in XML and DB

docs for Tree.

This would certainly cut down on the questions &quot;is this in

PEAR?&quot; since

things would be filed under the multiple categories they belong in. Most packages probably fit into one category, but this would also satisfy ambiguities like template engines, which really should be categorized under both HTML and Templates, for example. This would also allow placing core packages under their respective categories, and under core (or PFC or whatever it will be called). Greg -- PEAR Development Mailing List (http://pear.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php