How to store arbitrary name/value key pairs in a Django model?

Question

I have a fixed data model that has a lot of data fields.

class Widget(Models.model):
    widget_owner = models.ForeignKey(auth.User)
    val1 = models.CharField()
            


        

Answer 1

It looks like you've reinvented the triple store. I think it's a common thing, as we follow the idea of database flexibility to its natural conclusion. Triple stores tend to be fairly inefficient in relational database systems, but there are systems designed specifically for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplestore

At the scales you're talking about, your performance is likely to be acceptable, but they don't generally scale well without a specialized DB.