CODEWITHSUNDEEP
databaseormrelational-databasedocument-database
christok
christok

Reputation: 1107

Considering database options for new web application

I know this is a topic that's been addressed ad nauseam but I also know there are people who enjoy opining about databases so I figured I'd just go ahead and ask the question again.

I'm building out a web application that on a very basic level displays a list of objects that meet a user-defined search criteria. The primary function of the application will be to provide an interface by which a user can perform realtime faceted searches on a large number of object properties, including ranges of data, location data, and probably related data.

Of course there will be ancillary information too: user accounts, lookup tables etc.

My background is entirely in relational database development, primarily SQL Server with a little bit of MySQL. However, I'm intrigued by the possible applicability of an object-relational approach or even a full-on document database. Without the experience of working in those paradigms I'm not sure what I might be getting myself into.

Here are some further considerations that may affect the decision:

A potential use case would involve a user adjusting a slider control (let's say it controls high and low price parameters or a distance range). The selected parameters would then be packaged as a json object and sent to a search controller, which would then pass these parameters to the db server on change and expect a list of objects in return. In other words, the user would generally not be pushing a button to refine search criteria. The search update would happen each time they change a parameter.

I don't know the extent to which this a thing or not, but it would also be great if there were some way to leverage technology that could cache search results and then search within those results if the search were narrowed, thus performing a second search only on the smaller subset of the first search rather than the entire universe of available objects.

I guess while I'm at it I should ask about ORMs. Also something I'm generally not some experienced with (I've used Entity Framework a bit) but wondering if I should expand my horizons.

Thanks and I look forward to your opinions!

Upvotes: -1

Views: 256

Answers (1)

Damodar Periwal
Damodar Periwal

Reputation: 409

I think that your requirement of "There is the potential for a large amount of search parameters and a large amount of data, so indexing will be key and performance will be a huge potential gotcha" makes a strong case for using a relational database to store the data.

Leveraging an ORM that can support data in JSON format would seem to be ideal in your use case. Schema evolution for a system in production would sure be a challenge (not unsurmountable though) but it would be nice to use an ORM product that can at least easily support schema evolution during the development stage when things are more likely to change and evolve rapidly.

Given the kind of queries you would typically be issuing (e.g., adjusting a slider control), an ORM that supports prepared statements that can have range criteria would be more efficient.

Also, given your need to "perform realtime faceted searches on a large number of object properties, including ranges of data, location data, and probably related data", an ORM product that can easily support one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships and path-expressions in search criteria should simplify your development process.

Upvotes: 0

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