Hi All,
I have more of a brainstorming question than anything.
I have developed an equipment tracking applicaton in dataverse for teams for heavy duty, light equipment and vehicles. The client would now like to add the ability to add specification and detail information for each type of equipment that can be standard and searchable. The problem is that these features are not neccessarily standard on each piece of equipment and are unique to certian types or models or even just customized on specific units. For example we have Dozers and trucks and they want to be able to search based on their features such as
Dozers may have multiple of the following:
Hydraulic type 1
Hydraulic type 2
Hydraulic type 3
Attachment 1
Attchment 2
Hitch
Winch
etc
Trucks may have multiple of the following:
Sunroof
Leather seats
Standard box
Tool Box
Diesel
Trim Level
My Question is what would be the best way of approaching this without creating a complete data validation and maintence nightmare. The only thing that I have really come up with is potentially creating a features table that will cross reference the Make, Model and Type of Equipment and allow them to select all the features related to that type. Then either store those features in a related table tied to the unit (Option 1), or use the text of the feature and store it into a Text field with Strict formating that can easily be parsed out (Option 2).
Table 1 - Units
| ID |
Type |
Unit Features (Option 2) |
| 1 |
Dozer 1 |
Hydraulic type 1; Hitch |
| 2 |
Dozer 1 |
Hydraulic type 2; Winch |
| 3 |
Truck 1 |
Sunroof; Diesel |
| 4 |
Truck 1 |
Sunroof; Gas; Toolbox |
| 5 |
Truck 2 |
Sunroof; Gas; Leather Seats |
| 6 |
Truck 2 |
Diesel; Toolbox |
Table 2 - Features
| Type |
Feature |
|
Dozer Type 1
|
Hydraulic type 1 |
| Dozer Type 1 |
Hydraulic type 2 |
| Dozer Type 1 |
Hydraulic type 3 |
| Dozer Type 1 |
Hitch |
| Dozer Type 1 |
Winch |
| Truck Type 1 |
Sunroof |
| Truck Type 1 |
Diesel |
| Truck Type 1 |
Gas |
| Truck Type 1 |
Tool Box |
| Truck Type 2 |
Sunroof |
| Truck Type 2 |
Diesel |
| Truck Type 2 |
Gas |
| Truck Type 2 |
Tool Box |
| Truck Type 2 |
Leather Seats |
Table 3 - Unit Features (Option 1)
| Unit ID |
Feature |
| 1 |
Hydraulic type 1 |
| 1 |
Hitch |
| 2 |
Hydraulic type 1 |
| 2 |
Winch |
| 3 |
Sunroof |
| 3 |
Diesel |
| 4 |
Sunroof |
| 4 |
Gas |
| 4 |
Toolbox |
| 5 |
Sunroof |
| 5 |
Gas |
| 5 |
Leather Seats |
| 6 |
Diesel |
| 6 |
Toolbox |
My concern is that doing this would be a huge effort to continually maintain Table 2 and keep it updated with all the features for each individual unit everytime a new variant or model is aquired. I could potentially go to the highest level on the type with just dozer and truck however for some types this could result in a list of potentially 100 features that would need to be sorted through.
Any other ideas or confirmation of an option I presented would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
