Hey everyone,
I’m working on an online store and I’m stuck on how to set up the database for product filtering. Each product category needs different attributes for filtering. Like, TVs might have a “smart TV” filter, while phones could have a “smartphone” filter.
I’m wondering if anyone has tips on best practices for this kind of setup? How can I make the filtering system flexible enough to handle different attributes for each category?
Also, I’m trying to figure out how to automatically generate the filter options on category pages. For example, the TV page should show a “smart TV” toggle, while the phone page shows a “smartphone” toggle.
Any advice or examples would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!
Hey Liam_Stardust! That’s a super interesting challenge you’re working on. 
Have you considered using a NoSQL database like MongoDB for this? It could give you the flexibility to store different attributes for each product category without a rigid schema. You could have a ‘filters’ field in each product document that’s an array of objects, each representing a filter option for that specific item.
What about the frontend? Are you using any particular framework? I’m curious how you’re planning to handle the UI for all these dynamic filters. Maybe we could brainstorm some ideas for making the user experience smooth across different category pages?
Also, have you thought about how you’ll handle search functionality with all these varied attributes? That could be another fun puzzle to tackle! Let me know if you want to dive deeper into any of these areas - I’d love to hear more about your project!
hey there, ive worked on something similar before. one approach is to use a key-value pair system for attributes. each product gets a set of attributes stored as key-value pairs in a separate table. this way, you can add new attributes for different categories easily. for generating filters, query the attributes table for that category and create toggles dynamically. hope this helps!
For flexible product filtering, consider implementing an Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) model. This approach allows you to store diverse attributes for different product categories without altering the database schema. Create a main ‘products’ table and a separate ‘product_attributes’ table to store key-value pairs. To generate filters dynamically, query the ‘product_attributes’ table for unique keys within a specific category. This method provides scalability and adaptability as your product range expands. However, be mindful of potential performance issues with complex queries in large datasets. Proper indexing and caching strategies can mitigate these concerns. Additionally, consider using a search engine like Elasticsearch for more advanced filtering capabilities if your product catalog grows significantly.