Search on TYPE or metadata - need detail / performace basis

[ranjeetsi]

Have a question:

Have three ways in content model For eg)
a) Can have parent custom Type as hf:content and metadata property doctype as claim and metadata property docsubtype as claim_transport

b) Can have a parent custom type as hf:content and child Custom TYPE as Claim and metadata property docsubtype as claim_transport

c) Can have a parent custom type as hf:content and child Custom TYPE as Claim and further custom SUB_TYPE as claim_transport

From the above scenarios:
If I have to search the documents of TYPE Claim and SUB_TYPE claim_transport - will the search performance be better if i have the type in content model OR metadata search will be equally good at a later point of time with lot of nodes in alfresco?

Any suggestions/ recommendations due to advantages in search for the above options?

[afaust · Accepted solution]

Option c would the most efficient option when doing a query to select claim_transport documents. This is due to how a FTS query would be translated into an SQL query. With using type with no additional property to check, you effectively save on a sub-select / join on the alf_node_properties table, which generally simplifieds / speeds up the general query (also note, a string property check can be quite costly as the index on the string property column can be "poisoned" / made quite inefficient with ballast from any kind of textual / date-like property value in Alfresco).