On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Mike Cook <m...@epubbooks.com> wrote: > > I want to track the number of file downloads and I'm wondering if any > here have thoughts on how best to do this. > > At the moment I have a separate Files table for the details that > stores information such as; filename, filesize, version, > first_downloaded and downloads. > > Is incrementing the 'downloads' field here the best way to record it?
In a really basic, low-traffic setup, this might be ok. > Should I use a completely separate table or perhaps even a flat file? You've already got a database so a file would be needlessly complicating things as well as slowing things down. > I'm considering recording the date/time of each download, would this > affect the decision? The key here is "each download". So, you'll want to record them all, individually, in their own table. > Now, not only do I want to record file downloads but I also want to > know how may total downloads a particular author has achieved. Should > I increment a field in the author table at the time of the file > download or, process the 'Files' table to calculate this number on the > fly? - I guess that would mean adding an author_id to the Files table. Create a downloads table to store the datetime and file_id. You can total all downloads for files associated with a particular author by getting the IDs for all files with a particular author_id, and the sum for each in the downloads table. > NOTE: there's a good chance I will provide an API in the future for > third-parties to access the file database. Would this affect the > design decisions now? Do you mean the model/controller, or the actual table? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CakePHP" group. To post to this group, send email to cake-php@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cake-php+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
