Re: Opinions on this schema please =)

[Willem vanSchevikhoven]

Well,

I've pretty much decided what i can use to narrow down the initial rows and still maintain a decent level of multi-categorization (what a hard word).

Articles will have a article_type -column. The type can be "Brakedisc, Grooved", "Brakedisc, Drilled", and in theory but not in practice just a "Brakedisc".
This article_type corresponds to one node in the hierarcy. The type corresponds to one node in a nested set model, obviously because this is hierarchial there i no need to type in all the different part types.

Categories will have initial "category-strings" that are not visible to the customers, lets

Now, when i make categories like "Engine Parts" and "Powertrain parts", i can assign a clutch and a flywheel to both categories by just putting CLUTCH and FLYWHEEL on both "category-strings"
Why do i need to do this? Because this is one classical example where 50% of the people think that the clutch is an engine part and 50% think it's a drivetrain parts. In reality, it's just the part that connects those two.

I think this might be a pretty good candidate, and im pretty inclined to start using it already since this database schema has been taking quite a lot of time. Also, it's a "normal" way of doing things and is easy to grasp.