Need some DB experts: setting up a MySQL Database for a Curriculum Vitae system...

[Entity]

I work for a department in a University that is looking to update the method which we currently "post" our CVs (Curriculum Vitae; similar to a resume) online. Currently, our professors update their CVs manually, send them to their secretaries, who in turn send them to me. I upload them and add them to our webpage manually.

However, since I've taken over as webmaster, I've been making the push for more dynamic, database-driven sites. We're going to be switching to a PostNuke site soon, so people can add news, etc., on their own, without me having to intervene all over the place. This push for interactive sites has gone to the CV system. So, with that in mind, I'm looking to either program, or help implement, a new CV system that allows professors to directly publish their CVs via our site.

Before I begin on programming this, though, I'm looking for the best way to do it, specifically in developing the database. I'm fairly new to MySQL databases, which is what we are using, so any help here would be appreciated.

Here is what the system will do:

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Data is stored in a very granular, detailed style, then is dynamically formatted and delivered via the user's preferred method (PDF, LaTex, HTML, etc). Here is an example of the data:

Professor Jones

Positions:

-Lecturer, Department of Biostatistics, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 1975
-Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1980-84

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As you can see, the "Position" category - which is one of several categories within the CV itself - is broken down like this:

[Position]
[Department Name]
[School Name]
[University Name]
[City]
[State]
[Dates Position Held]

As you can see, this is going to be a fairly intricate and complex system. At the moment, I can't figure out the best way to develop it. I hope what I've written isn't too confusing; here is another example to help you understand.

Professor Jones

-Educational Background

• -School
  -City, State
  -Degree
  -Year

-Positions

• -subcategories also shown above

-Honors and Awards

• -Award
  -Year

-Professional Activities

• -Activity
  -Year

That's the gist of it, but the fields continue after that. The online CVs we will be providing will also have published articles, which would be separated into several subcategories (author(s), title, date, journal name), books, teaching experience, and a number of other categories, each which will have subcategories.

I'm somewhat familiar w/MySQL, as I stated, but this is above my head. Can anyone lend a hand or point me in the right direction? I have some PHP/MySQL books at my side and all summer to program this system, but I can't quite get a grasp on it yet.

a billion (and one) thanks,
Rob

[jofa]

[My first reply disappeared totally, because the attached image was too large Here's a new reply...]

Seems fairly simple to me

In the center of it all you have persons. In my model (see picture) I have some idea about persons having more than one CV - don't know exactly when this can be useful...
Anyway, the person's ID is the foreign key in the CV table
For each CV there can be zero or more rows of education, each school can educate zero or more students For this M:M relation you need the tb_cv_education table
A school can be of some type; primary, secondary, university and also shorter courses or evening classes
(Of course you can add tables for cities, states and countries too. Then you can refer to the city_id from the school table instead of inserting the same city name over and over again into the school table.)
The principle is the same for professional activities; tb_employer corresponds to tb_school and tb_cv_activity corresponds to tb_cv_education

[MattR]

Looks good, pretty much how I'd do it as well.