Introduction to Magento EAV

Here we’ll discuss the database architecture used behind Magento. Hence the CMS follow the Magento EAV – Entity Attribute Value database structure. Further the CMS uses such structures for products, categories & customer details etc. However before the Mage revolution (Mage Version 1.4x or earlier) the Magento EAV structure was used for orders too. But after Mage 1.4x the flat structure are being used instead of Magento EAV.

 E for Entity – Magento EAV

Here from the definition Entity refers to the Magento Data items. So, following is the list of entity tables for customer details, products & categories etc.:

A for Attribute – Magento EAV

Next Attributes indicates the various attributes of a subject.  

In general, same attributes for an entity comes under in a single table in Mage Database. For example, eav_attribute is differs with each other by the term entity_type_id.

By using the following SQL query, we are able to see all attributes comes under an entity. Here we’ll check attributes for product:

Now a screen pops up with all attributes under single entity(here product):

In the same way, we can see the attributes for all entities using following as entity_type_code:

V for Value – Magento EAV

Last but not least, value means the real value of attributes of an entity. In terms of product, catalog_product_entity_[backend_type] tables store the Mage attribute values of entity. Here [backend_type] actually is the value of the field.

Further note: except value “static”,backend_type of table: eav_attribute.  

By the way, using following SQL query to find [backend_types] whom are related to product entity.

Here, following SQL is used to find all the backend types related to a product entity:

Next we’ll see the following results:

And tables are storing values for attributes :

In conclusion, EAV relates database tables based on backend_type and attributes .