There are several types of data my website generates for every node. Node's popularity score, node's comment count obtained from a 3rd party API, etc... This data is set for every node.
In the past I've used to just add hidden fields to each node, i.e. field_popularity_score
, field_comment_count
, etc..., and had the fields updated on hook_cron
; but I've ran into an issue. Each time those fields are updated, the node's revision date would change also.
Where should I be storing this data? I'd prefer to stay away from using the standard node fields, as it would break its purpose.
Update
Apparently, per this post, Drupal 5 used to allow storage of serialized data into $node->data
.
Update
Interesting enough, Node object reference page lists $node->data
as part of Drupal 7. I would love to hear if there is a way to use that field to store serialized data in Drupal 7.