用于存储合同的数据库：mysql + php，处理数据库设计中的编号项目

Question

I'm looking for solutions to store the contracts in the database. I use mysql + php. A contract looks like this

Contract # place holder

place place holder date place holder

1. GENERAL TERMS

1.1. text-text-text place holder text-text-text

...

2. FINANCIAL TERMS

2.1. text-text-text place holder

and so on.

The things to be put instead of the place holder s will come a DB query.

My first idea is to create 3 tables (simplified): 1st with contract numbers, 2nd with numbered items (1, 1.1, ... 2, 2.1, ...) and textual fields relating to the numbered items, and 3rd having many-to-many relationship between the 1st and the 2nd table. I'm afraid that this solution is a nightmare to maintain because the textual fields can change, some may be left out completely depending on the contract.

What are the possible solutions to my problem? One thing to keep in mind is that I want to display the contract in the html later, or maybe in a Word document, whatever is easier.

Answer 1

After searching the internet and trials + errors, replacement of place holders for the needed data from the DB is not a problem (obviously). The problem is how to get the numbered items from the database and not have a DB design nightmare. In the end, decided to go with one TEXTual field in mysql that stores the complete text of the contract. Then use something like http://parsedown.org/ that'll format the numbered items well. Then the person who's not familiar with the html markup can correct the contract text if necessary, and Parsedown (or similar) will take care of the proper html layout.