Creating Filters Across Multiple Tables

[synergypoint]

I have a database driven content management system built in PHP and MySQL.

I have seperate tables for different types of content like Events, Links, FAQ's, News, Contacts, etc.

Now I am tyring to add "filters" that will work across different tables.

For example, a filter might be a type of activity. I want to be able to bring back Events, Links, and News that I have assigned this filter to.

I don't want to hard code the filters into the existing data tables with additional fields though. I want to be able to easily add and remove filters as needed.

My plan is to create some additonal tables for this.

I was wondering if anyone else has done anything like this before and if there are any examples, tips, or references out there?

Any help or comments greatly appreciated.

I will be more than happy to share my results when I'm done.

Thanks.

[drawmack]

create a table called filters. Each entry in this table defines a single filter. Then create link tables between filters and each other table. Then you can assign filters to anything and you're query will just have to pull from all the link tables.