party-tph-catalog

Activation

ACTIVATION:
  triggers:
    - "party pattern"
    - "catalog dimension"
    - "lookup table"
    - "TPH"
    - "new tag/status/type entity"
  context: decision-point | implementation
  anti-triggers:
    - "Entities with their own rich schema — use scaffold-template-entity"
    - "Anything needing its own table or non-int key"

Detail

Party (TPH) Catalog Pattern

Problem

Small catalog dimensions (Gender, BlogTag, BlogPostStatus, BlogPostVisibility…) each need audit fields, state, soft delete, permissions and CRUD — but giving each its own table + migration + full scaffold is overkill for rows that are basically (id, description).

Solution

All catalog dimensions share one table (Parties) via TPH with a PartyType string discriminator.

1. Inherit Party (which already implements IEntity<int>, IAuditableEntity, IStateEntity; Description serves as the display name). New properties must be nullable/defaulted so they don't interfere with sibling types:

public class BlogTag : Party
{
    public string Slug { get; set; } = string.Empty;
    public string TagName => Description ?? string.Empty;   // computed alias for clarity
}
public class Gender : Party { }

2. Register the discriminator in PartyConfiguration (.HasValue<Gender>(ResourceIdentifiers.Gender)), add DbSet<Gender> Genders to AppDbSetter, and the ResourceIdentifiers constant. No new table/migration for the type itself (only if you added columns).
3. DTOs inherit the Party DTOs in one file: InfoGenderDto : InfoPartyDto, CreateGenderDto : CreatePartyDto, UpdateGenderDto : UpdatePartyDto (reuse DeletePartyDto).
4. Service inherits BasePartyService<TParty, TInfo, TCreate, TUpdate, TDelete> (int key, extends PayloadService<>): call SetPolicies(_cachePolicies) in the constructor; CreateAsync stamps createDto.PartyType = typeof(TParty).Name automatically; type-scoped reads via SearchByCriteriaByPartyTypeAsync<TDerived>(model) / ExportByPartyTypeAsync<TDerived>(...) which filter by discriminator through _repository.AsQueryableOfType<TDerived>(false).
5. Party-to-party links use the PartyRelation table (PartyId, RelatedPartyId, RelationshipType, StartDate/EndDate, notes; auditable) — don't invent join tables between dimensions.
6. Endpoints/permissions follow the standard recipe (GenderEndpoints : IEndpointDefinition, attribute triad).

Applicability

Gotchas

1. Key is int (Party owns it) — not the Guid default of full entities.
2. New properties on a derived type live on the shared table — keep them nullable or defaulted, or sibling inserts break.
3. Forgetting the discriminator registration makes EF treat rows as base Party — type-scoped queries return empty.
4. SearchByCriteriaByPartyTypeAsync caches under the first policy (falls back to CacheRoutes.Parties) — call SetPolicies or you share the generic Parties cache.
5. Root SKILL.md declares this pattern as its anti-trigger — one entry point per flow: full entity → root skill, catalog dimension → this one.

Related Skills

• scaffold-template-entity, permission-model, cache-policy-eviction