Database Schema

This page lists all MySQL tables used by the ISFDB software and links to more detailed pages which provide a field-level view of each table.

Introduction

The ISFDB is built around the following types of records:

• authors, which include editors and artists
• publications, i.e. any separate appearances of SF-related works, mostly books and magazines
• titles, i.e. separate works of fiction, non-fiction and art which can appear in one or more publications
• series, i.e. groups of related titles
• publishers
• publication series, that is otherwise unrelated publications grouped together by the publisher, e.g. Ace Double
• awards

Note that all notes are stored in the notes table, which other tables refer to via the primary note_id key. (The only exception is the Authors table which contains author notes.) The metadata table contains data pertinent to the database itself.

A high-level explanation of the database can be found in the Database Overview article (out of date.) An out-of-date diagram of the ISFDB tables and their relationships can be found here.

Global Tables

Information stored in the global tables are shared across the title, author, and publication related tables in the ISFDB.

• Schema:directory - Author directory information.
• Schema:history - Tracks database change history (obsolete.)
• Schema:languages - List of all languages supported by the ISFDB. Must be kept in sync with LANGUAGES in common/isfdb.py.
• Schema:license_keys - User license key information.
• Schema:metadata - Metadata about the database itself.
• Schema:notes - General-purpose notes area.
• Schema:recognized_domains - Internet domain names recognized by the ISFDB.
• Schema:submissions - Data submissions.
• Schema:webpages - URLs of other Web sites. Used by authors, publishers, publication series, titles, series, award types, award categories and publications.

User Tables

• Schema:user_languages‎ - User Language preferences.
• Schema:user_preferences - User preferences.
• Schema:user_sites - User Website preferences.
• Schema:changed_verified_pubs - Changes to primary-verified publications
• Schema:user_status - User status information

MediaWiki Tables

The ISFDB uses MediaWiki software to run its Wiki. See this MediaWiki chart for lists of table fields. The following MediaWiki pages are also used by the ISFDB software:

• mw_page - Information about all Wiki pages. Used by the nightly cleanup reports to find Wiki-ISFDB mismatches.
• mw_user‎ - User ID, name and other user-specific information. The version in publicly available backups has been cleansed of all private data.
• mw_user‎_group - Includes the Wiki group (editors, moderators/sysops or bureaucrats) to which each user belongs.

Author-Related Tables

The following tables are used to store information about authors and their works:

• Schema:authors - Contains information about an author.
• Schema:canonical_author - Links author records to title records.
• Schema:emails - Specialized table for storing email addresses.
• Schema:pseudonyms - Table of pseudonyms.
• Schema:pub_authors - Links author records to publication records.
• Schema:author_views - Contains statistical data about the number of times author records have been viewed.

Publication-Related Tables

The following tables are used to store information about publications:

• Schema:identifier_types - Contains information on external identifier types.
• Schema:identifier_sites - Contains information on Web sites for external identifier types.
• Schema:identifiers - Contains information on external identifiers.
• Schema:isbn_ranges - Contains information about ISBN hyphenation rules.
• Schema:magazine - Contains magazine information. Unused.
• Schema:primary_verifications - Contains primary verification information for a specific publication.
• Schema:pub_content - Links title records to a specific publication.
• Schema:pub_series - Contains information on a publication series.
• Schema:publishers - Contains publisher information.
• Schema:pubs - Contains information on a specific publication.
• Schema:reference - Contains information on secondary verification references.
• Schema:verification - Contains secondary verification information for a specific publication.
• Schema:websites - Third party (bookseller and bibliographic) sites that a publication may link to based on its ISBN.

Title-Related Tables

The following tables are used to store information about titles:

• Schema:series - Contains series information.
• Schema:tag_mapping - Links a tags entry to a specific title per user.
• Schema:tags - Contains user-defined title tags.
• Schema:title_relationships - Maps relationship between a review, serial, or translations to a title.
• Schema:titles - Contains information about a specific title.
• Schema:votes - Tracks votes for a specific title per user.
• Schema:title_views - Contains statistical information about the number of times each title's record has been viewed by ISFDB users.

Awards-Related Tables

The following tables are used to store information about awards:

• Schema:award_cats - Contains information about award categories.
• Schema:award_types - Contains information about award types.
• Schema:awards - Contains award information.
• Schema:title_awards - Links award records to their related title records.

Transliteration Tables

• Schema:trans_authors - Transliterated canonical names for authors
• Schema:trans_legal_names - Transliterated legal names for authors
• Schema:trans_pub_series - Transliterated names for publication series
• Schema:trans_publisher - Transliterated names for publishers
• Schema:trans_pubs - Transliterated titles for publications
• Schema:trans_series - Transliterated names for regular (title) series
• Schema:trans_titles - Transliterated titles for title records

Data Cleanup and Statistics Tables

• Schema:bad_images - Publication IDs with suspect images
• Schema:cleanup - Record IDs in need of review and potential cleanup
• Schema:sfe3_authors - URLs of SFE3 articles about people that are not linked from ISFDB author records
• Schema:most_reviewed - Most-reviewed titles by year and decade
• Schema:award_titles_report - Titles with most awards and nominations by year, decade and title type