Customisable meta-data

[mattdy]

Area

Backend (API)

Problem / Motivation

Current structure does not allow storage of meta-data such as 'decant time' or 'storage temperature'.

Proposed Solution

Rather than forcing a set of meta-data on users, consider allowing customisable fields on each resource.

meta_fields table structure:

• id: Primary key
• resource: Type of resource this applies to
• name: Customisable name, such as 'Decant Time'
• type: Enum of meta-data type - text / number / decimal / date / interval etc

Each resource type table would then have a meta field added, which would have JSON structure:

{
['id':'12', 'value':'1 hour'],
['id':'15', 'value':'15C']
}

Additional Context

No response

[mattdy]

Other considerations:

• Do we need to specify a sort order for fields?
• Do we store data in a separate meta_values table?
• Possible 'description' field for each meta_field
• Do we need a 'select' type as well, for enum-style picking?
• Do we need to specify validation criteria per meta_field?
• Do we allow these new meta fields to be displayed within a DataTable?
• If yes to the above, do we allow sort/filtering?
• What is the API structure for all of this? Does meta-data get fetched as part of the standard GET query, or does it require a separate lookup? What does this do to query performance?