DMZ 1.7.1 (DataMapper OverZealous Edition)

[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
@Poetawd,

There are lots of ways to solve this issue, but it's more application or database design related, and has nothing to do with Datamapper. Datamapper only comes in if you have it implemented in your database, and you need to code the queries for it.

You could add a 'client_type' to the Client table (assuming a person can't suddenly become a company. You can make code that does this, and switches the client_type). You can use a relationship table and set a constraint on it (client_id must be unique for example), you can do a check in your code, you can write a validation method that does a check when you save, etc.

You can even make a multi-relations table, where client has a many-to-many to each of the other tables needing a link to client. And make client_id in that table unqiue.

None of these are Datamapper questions though...