CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpmysql
Metal Castles
Metal Castles

Reputation: 42

Best wаy to structure forum database

I am practicing in writing a simple forum and just can't decide on table structure. Currently I have this:

    id  int(11)     AUTO_INCREMENT      
    title   varchar(56) 
    group_id    int(11)
    group_parent    tinyint(1)
    access_from int(11) 
    alliance_forum  tinyint(1)           
    alliance_id int(11)
    alliance_role_access    int(11)

Group parent is a 0 or 1 column which states wherever a forum is parent of forums, and group id is for group forums whch reffers to same table to record with group parent set to 1.

Alliance forum is same as group parent, as the alliance id, and access columns are for access control.

Which would be the best and perfomant way of restructuring this? Should I make 3 different tables for alliance forums, forum_groups and group_forums or keep it this way?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 414

Answers (1)

Christian
Christian

Reputation: 612

I think you have the right idea but you're programming yourself into a corner right now.

Forums usually don't need nested threads, but nested groups/topics/categories

I would do it this way:

Table: groups

id  int(11)     AUTO_INCREMENT      
name   varchar(56)
parent    int(11) #If parent is 0 there is no parent. Else it's the ID of the parent group (so you can have nested groups/topics/categories)

Table: threads

id  int(11)     AUTO_INCREMENT      
title   varchar(56) 
alliance_id int(11) #again: 0 if not, else ID of your alliance

Table: posts

id  int(11)     AUTO_INCREMENT      
thread int(11) # id of thread
message varchar(1000)
creator int(11) #user id of creator

You might also want to add things like timestamps and creator IPs to threads and posts.

If you want nested posts (reddit style), just add a parent int(11) to the posts table

Not quite sure what access_from is meant to be

Upvotes: 1

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