I am working on a web-based system where the end-user needs to be able to define the properties of a Widget (color, width, height, etc.) and then the user needs to be able add/edit/delete Widgets with the properties that were defined.

Take Homes for example: The user needs to define a Category named "Homes" and then setup the properties of a Home (Sq. Feet, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Lot Size, etc). Now, someone can go in and start entering the homes into the site.

It would be nice if the system would:
  • Allow for the creation of the widget structure as above
  • Allow for searching for a widget (free text in Lot Size)
  • Allow for a search to be narrowed by a property (only show homes with 3 bathrooms)


Instead of having a table for Homes and a table for Cars and a table for Network Devices, I want to have one set of tables hold Categories, CategoryProperties, CategoryPropertyValues or something like that.

I would assume that something like NewEgg or other sites like that are developed that way. It just seems crazy to create separate code for separate Categories of items.

There has to be something like this available, but I cannot seem to find the right words to use in Google to find it. It may be that one of the eCommerce solutions would allow this, but I am not overly familiar with them.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!