[wp-hackers] Time for a wp_post_relationships table?

[Jeremy Clarke]

FWIW, I think a built-in system for associating metadata to taxonomy terms
would solve/simplify a LOT of these scenarios, and make it easier to use the
taxonomy system as intended without getting involved in post-on-post
relationships.

If actors/attorneys/people, in their term format, could have more than one
data field associated to them then you don't need the special single
page-type post about them to exist, you can just depend on the term listing
to show that content at the top with the related posts listed below. E.g.
Brad Pitt is a term in the actors taxonomy and the term has his bio, photo
etc. as meta fields. You then just use the get_category_link() style url to
link to his page, where you show all the info as it if was a post at the
top, along with other posts/post_types listed below.

This would make it a lot easier to have one core post type, in this case
movies, and let the relationships happen with the detailed and
metadata-powered taxonomy terms. This wouldn't solve the whole problem when
you have multiple post types and taxonomies that all have to be related
together,  but those scenarios will be a nightmare no matter what we do.

Of course, if done properly this would make terms feel a lot more like
posts, but why would that be such a bad thing? They already have a screen to
edit them like posts do, that screen just sucks right now.

Things that would make this a reality (mostly doable via. plugin right now,
but would be much more likely to be used if standardized):

   - Visual editor and other enhancements in term editing screen.
   - Standard means of associating meta to terms (term_meta table)
   - Easy API for defining default custom fields to show up in term editing
   UI (also needed for posts!)

IMHO this is a much more obvious need than post-to-post relationships and
most large cms-y sites could think of ways that term_meta would be useful.
It's an obvious need that also happens to solve a lot of the simpler class
of problem Mike is frustrated with.

-- 
Jeremy Clarke
Code and Design | globalvoicesonline.org