I have a use-case which consist in storing several maps under an attribute. It's the equivalent JSON list:
[
{"tel": "+33123456789", "type": "work"},
{"tel": "+33600000000", "type": "mobile"},
{"tel": "+79001234567", "type": "mobile"}
]
Also, I'd like to have it searchable at the object level. For instance: - search entries that have a mobile number - search entries that have a mobile number and whose number starts with the string "+7"
Since Riak doesn't support sets of maps (but only sets of registers), I was wondering if there is a trick to achieve it. So far I've had 2 ideas
Map of maps
The idea is to generate (randomly?) keys for the objects, and store each object of the list in a parent map whose keys are the ones generated for this only purpose to have a key.
It seems to me that it doesn't allow to search the object (maps inside the parent map) because Riak Solr search requires the full path to the attribute. One cannot simply write the following Solr query: phone_numbers.*.tel:+7*. Also composed search (eg. search entries that have a mobile number and whose number starts with the string "+7") seem hard to achieve.
Sets with simulated multi-valued attributes
This solution consists in using a set and insert all the values of the object as a single string, with separators between them. Yes, it's a hack. An attribute value would look like: $tel:+79001234567$type:mobile$ with : as the attribute name-value separator and $ as the attribute separator.
Search could be feasible using the * wildcard (ugly, but still), except the problem with escaping the separators: what if the type attribute includes a :? Are they some separators that are accepted by Riak and would not be acceptable in a string (I'm thinking of control characters)?
In a nutshell
I'm looking for a solution whatever the hackiness of it, as long as it works. Any idea is welcome.
