I've been excited about the potential uses of Maria's Dynamic Columns (MDC) since I first read about the them. Now I am starting a new application development and want to use MDC. It's a server-side PHP webapp using the Yii 2.0 MVC framework. These days, for typical webapp pages, I seldom write SQL and use the ORM instead. So I started writing an extension to the Yii 2.0 Active Record ORM to provide an abstract interface to read and write structured dynamic attributes as well as use them in queries. I'm trying to do it so that I can make the same API work using PostgreSQL jsonb and perhaps other things. While this is very interesting work, I have developed a vague uncomfortable feeling about MDC. I have the sense that this wicked powerful feature is suffering from atrophy and possibly apathy. Contributing to this sense: 1. I haven't been able to discuss MDC with anyone who uses it. (If you do, contacts below). 2. In at least two places (one was here <https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/indexoptimizations-in-dynamic-columns/>) I've read text with the implied meaning, "we may improve such-and-such about MDC if and when people start actually using it." 3. The MDC syntax is so clunky I worry that people who might find it useful are turned away. 4. Did the 5.3 version with numbers for column names turn people off MDC for good? 5. The requirement to specify datatype when querying a dynamic column is agonizing. The manual says it is a limitation of SQL itself (presumably immutable) but PostgreSQL manages to avoid it when querying jsonb doc properties. 6. The lack of indexing of dynamic columns is a severe limitation but PostgreSQL manages to index jsonb document properties. And then... 7. I head a rumor that some kind of JSON features are coming to Maria. So, do Maria's Dynamic Columns have a future? Are my fears that MDC will be neglected as some better solution to the same problem receives all the attention? Basically, I'm trying to gauge the risk vs. return in my investment in developing the ORM extension I mentioned at the top. Tom fsb@thefsb.org tom[] on Freenode