What is the best way to manage index tables on update/deletion of the indexed data?
I have a table containing all kinds of data fora user, i.e. name, address, contact data, company data etc. Key to this table is the user ID. I also maintain about a dozen index tables matching my queries, like name, email address, company D.U.N.S number, permissions the user has, etc. These index tables contain the user IDs matching the search key as column names, with the column values left empty. Whenever a user is deleted or updated I have to make sure to update the index tables, i.e. if the permissions of a user changes I have to remove the user ID from the rows matching the permission he no longer has. My problem is to find all matching entries, especially for data I no longer have. My solution so far is to keep a separate table to keep track of all index tables and keys the user can be found in. In the case mentioned I look up the keys for the permissions table, remove the user ID from there, then remove the entry in the keys table. This works so far (in production for more than a year and a half), and it also allows me to clean up after something has gone wrong. But still, all this additional level of meta information adds a lot of complexity. I was wondering wether there is some kind of pattern that addresses my problem. I found lots of information saying that creating the index tables is the way to go, but nobody ever mentions maintaining the index tables. tia, Thomas
