Storing user preferences in Web Application

Question

I'm wondering how Web Sites often add new features and new preferences without making a mess of the database.

I thought of storing these in a preferences table with a many to many relationship and a key value pair.

Is there a better way?

Thanks

In the end, "User Preferences" is just a subsection of "Data" that a web application will need to store. As such, I don't think there is one correct way to answer this question. You might as well ask "How do web sites typically store their data", which of course has a number of answers (as numerous as there are database types and strategies to use those databases, and maybe even client-side storage in some cases). Can you make your question more specific? Is there a specific problem you are having? — Mark Hildreth, Jan 17 '13 at 18:03
In addition to @MarkHildreth comment - any question with "better"/"best" is pretty much unanswerable. You need to define what "better" is for you so suggestions can be made for changes toward *your* "better" goal. — Alexei Levenkov, Jan 17 '13 at 18:12
Why not store them on the users PC w/ cookies, then parse them on the session load. You could less sensitive settings there. — Botonomous, Jan 17 '13 at 18:13
@Anon very bad idea to store them on cookies. The cookie if follow you on every page call, the size is limited, can be change by hand, not safe etc... — Aristos, Jan 17 '13 at 18:15
@Aristos notice I said 'Less Sensitive' settings. I was thinking things like page color, font, etc...He never specified what kind of settings. Why would cookies be a bad idea for settings like those? — Botonomous, Jan 17 '13 at 18:16
@Aristos Yea I get that, but once your cookie has been parsed (Start of session), then you don't need to touch it again. That would only be 1 call. I do see the limitation, but i dont think its a "Very bad idea", that what they were made for. — Botonomous, Jan 17 '13 at 18:21
@Aristos thanks for the discussion. Apparently we have different views on the topic. Sorry OP about the hijack. — Botonomous, Jan 17 '13 at 18:29
@Anon At least take some time and read that http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#cookie_size — Aristos, Jan 17 '13 at 18:33

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '13 at 18:22

4

You can always use the asp.net User Profile Properties that comes together with the login module of the asp.net

Read about and see some examples right on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2y3fs9xs.aspx

answered Jan 17 '13 at 18:22

Aristos

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '13 at 18:08

I would recommend storing a portion of your data in a NoSQL database or in a NoSQL style data structure--just like you're saying, key/value pairs.

My personal preference is to store the primary and foreign keys and minimal identification data in a normalized data structure and store other attributes in a NoSQL database or data structure. That way the other attributes can be added and removed easily and can even be different from one record to another.

Storing user preferences in Web Application

2 Answers2

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