Next Generation Schema/Advanced Relationships Table Structure: Difference between revisions

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#REDIRECT [[MusicBrainz_Database/Schema#Relationship_table_structure]]
===Advanced Relationships Table Structure===
[[Image:ngs-ars.png|left|frameless|500px]]

There are tables for every possible combination of primary entities (artist, label, recording, release, release_group, url, work), all prefixed with ''l_'' and all with the same format. Two of them are shown in the diagram. They contain a field, '''edits_pending''' that is a count of pending changes to the AR, and three foreign keys: '''link''' that points back to the associated entry in the ''link'' table, and '''entity0''' and '''entity1''' that point to the associated entry in the corresponding primary entity table (i.e. '''artist''', '''recording''', '''url''', etc.).

There are two tables that assist with avoiding unnecessary duplication:

The ''link'' table contains the begin and end date info, and the '''link_type''' foreign key field that specifies what kind of AR it is. It also has a count of how many other attributes that particular link has in the '''attribute_count''' field, and a '''created''' field that specifies when it was created.

Each AR attribute either applies to a particular AR or it doesn't. The ''link_attribute'' table stores this information, having a record for each '''attribute_type''' (a foreign key field for ''link_attribute_type'') of each '''link'''.

The AR types and attributes are defined in three other tables, shown at the top of the diagram. They can only be modified by the AR editors.

The ''link_type'' table defines the types of ARs available. AR types are arranged in a number of trees, for ease of finding. This tree structure is expressed with the '''parent''' and '''child_order''' fields; '''parent''' is the '''id''' of the parent AR type, or null if it's at the root, and '''child_order''' orders the children of a given parent AR type. Each AR type has a unique uuid, stored in the ''gid'' field, for use in permalinks and external applications. The link between a particular AR type and the corresponding ''l_'' table is formed by the '''entity_type0''' and '''entity_type1''' fields.

The attributes are themselves defined in the ''link_attribute_type'' table. Like AR types, attributes form a number of trees (the vast majority of them are individual musical instruments). Besides the '''parent''' and '''child_order''' fields shared with the ''link_type'' table, the ''link_attribute_table'' also has a '''root''' field, showing the root of the tree that the attribute is part of. Attributes also have '''name'''s and '''description'''s which appear various places they are displayed, as well as '''gid'''s and a '''last_updated''' timestamp.

The ''link_type_attribute_type'' table specifies what attributes can be applied to particular types of ARs; it has the necessary foreign key fields ('''link_type''' and '''attribute_type''') and it also specifies how many instances of the attribute (or one of it's children) can be added to the particular AR type in the '''min''' and '''max''' fields. Currently, most of them allow the attributes to merely be present or absent, a few allow any number of copies of the attribute, or none. The "creative commons licensed download" attribute has to be included exactly once, while the ''instrument'' attribute (of the ''instrument'' type AR), requires at least one instance.

Latest revision as of 12:18, 24 May 2015