Hi,

I need to have multiple member types with distinct information associated with them. Have been reading about decorating the member. However as each decorator affects all the base table it seems a little inelegant.

So thought this approach might work and am looking for feedback.

1) Decorate Member with MyMember which has_one MemberExtend
2) Create MemberExtend which extends DataObject
3) Subclass MemberExtend which each type I need.

Then each member has 1 set of associated info at the MemberExtend Object. The MemberExtend object in infinitely subclassable (clearly not a word).

The only downsides I see are:
1) Backend isn't aware of extra data
2) MemberExtend could potentially have multiple Members (this relationship could be turned around, but the same thing occurs)

Thoughts? Maybe I'm over thinking this.

A better name for MemberExtend is probably Role.

The problem with decorating Member is that all members get the added stuff. In many cases the need for a special Member is that a site needs a way for people to log into the website and not the CMS. If I need to store information for members that are website only then I subclass Member so that administration users don't get a bunch of info that is not relevant to them. I also usually create a custom loginForm so that when the special member logs in they get sent to the page they should see. I use ModelAdmin to administrate my special members. In fact I have never found a reason to decorate the built in Member class as the current one does most everything needed for CMS administration.