A fabric collection breaks the tidy assumptions data-modeling tutorials make. One bolt is a single solid color. Another is a cotton-linen blend in several colors. Some carry a fabric type, while many don't. This talk uses that genuinely messy domain to show why Datomic's attribute-based schema fits sparse, irregular data better than rigid relational tables. We'll walk through a real fabric stash schema covering fibers, structures, colors, and weights, modeled as enumerated values, with single- and multi-valued attributes side by side. From there, we watch it grow as new fabric types appear, without a migration. You'll leave with concrete techniques for modeling any irregular, real-world domain in Datomic, instead of forcing it into columns that don't fit.

Wendy Randolph

Wendy is a freelance software developer, community speaker, and conference host, passionate about functional programming and helping others break into tech. A career-changer and founding student of Clojure Camp, she has hosted Babashka Conf, Clojure Conj, and ElixirConf, and spoken at functional programming events around the world. Currently, she's building with Elixir professionally and staying active in Clojure. When not behind a computer or a microphone, she enjoys sewing, jazz dance, sports cars, and Disney.