[wp-hackers] Plugin best practices: wp_options and storing custom data bits

[Stephane Daury]

Hey all,

I'm having to store static data for a plugin. To put it in context,  
people can choose to embed the data from an API as dynamic (live api  
or wp_cache lookup at page load) or as static (ie: snapshot in time of  
an api record).

The usual practice is to have a custom table in the wp db (like  
Twitter tools et al.), but I'm wondering what would happen during WP  
upgrades and migrations.

Is the WP export / import scripts be taking these in consideration  
when people are moving hosts, or will the tables be left behind? If  
the latter, is the import/export tool hookable so we can instruct it  
to also import/export our custom tables?

I could lookup the code, but I also have another related question:  
Instead of having a custom table, and since the objects will be rather  
lightweight, would it be a really bad idea to store them in wp_options  
instead?!?
They'll all have a unique key, and I only need to query them one at a  
time (ie, no search, lists, etc).

I'm just wondering if the wp_options avenue would lead to a global  
slow down of the wp install in the long term, since the table is one  
of the most accessed.


Thanks for your feedback,



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Stephane Daury - http://tekartist.org/