In database table design, how does "Virtual Goods" affect table design -- should we create an instan
- by Jian Lin
When we design a database table for a DVD rental company, we actually have a movie, which is an abstract idea, and a physical DVD, so for each rental, we have a many-to-many table with fields such as:
TransactionID UserID DvdID RentedDate RentalDuration AmountPaid
but what about with virtual goods? For example, if we let a user rent a movie online for 3 days, we don't actually have a DVD, so we may have a table:
TransactionID UserID MovieID RentedDate RentalDuration AmountPaid
should we create a record for each instance of "virtual good"? For example, what if this virtual good (the movie) can be authorized to be watched on 3 devices (with 3 device IDs), then should we then create a virtual good record in the VirtualGoods table, each with a VirtualGoodID and then another table that has
VirtualGoodID DeviceID
to match up the movie with the DeviceIDs?
We can also just use the TransactionID as the VirtualGoodID. Are there circumstances where we may want to create a record to record this "virtual good" in a VirtualGoods table?
