Hi,
I love both WP and the TVC Toolkit, but as an old database guy, I get a bit queasy with the idea of forcing every entity into the wp_posts and wp_postmeta table structures.
For example, say I have what in most systems would be a Patients table with 50 fields. Using the WP paradigm, each patient would require 1 entry in the wp_posts table and 50 entries in the wp_postmeta table. Not a big deal if I have 100,000 patients because the post_id index on the wp_postmeta table is so selective. But what if I have 1 million patients or 10 million? What if I have 10 such entities in my database model, meaning, I could end up with billions of records in the wp_postmeta table?
Obviously, there is great benefit in staying within the WP table structure, as I get to use all my TVC tools for that data. But in your experience (i.e. that of your custom development group), where does one cross the line in terms of performance and get forced into custom table solutions? Or is it more often the complexity of the data model that requires custom tables, and not performance?
Sorry for such a general question, but for those trying to push WP CMS boundaries into enterprise data, these kinds of guideposts are important in planning our strategies.
Wayne