[RESOLVED] Forum Help - Thread/Post Storage

[dclamp]

I am making a small forum for my website and i am not sure of the best way to store posts and threads.

Should i store them all in one table and just have a field "parent" that if it is blank it must be a thread and if not, it is a post.

Or should they be in separate tables?

I think that when they are together it makes it easier for me to count the number of posts and thread on the main forum page.

http://www.rapidfriends.com/forums.php That is what i have so far.

[dclamp]

never mind! i decided to go with them all in the same table.

rep was distributed accordingly

[visualAd]

I thought I replied to this last night. In my imaginary reply I said that you should put them in two tables. It will reduce redundancy and overhead (i.e: when moving threads).

It also means it is more normalized.

[penagate]

Threads are not posts. They must be in separate tables. The data that you store in each case is quite different.

[visualAd]

FroumID, Number Of Replies, Thread Starter, Post Time, Rating, Deleted Flag

All those are the data you are likely to find in a thread.

[penagate]

And the title, of course.

Mind you, I'd be inclined to omit the 'number of replies' field, and use an aggregate instead.

[visualAd]

And the title, of course.

Mind you, I'd be inclined to omit the 'number of replies' field, and use an aggregate instead.

Duplication in favour of efficiency.

[penagate]

Bah. Not worth it for a count field.

[visualAd]

Certainly is - a single SQL query creates a lot of overhead. In a forum it is better to do that during the update rather than the recall.

[penagate]

Disagree. Row count is a quick lookup. Also, executing it as a single query would be foolish. It would be done as part of the query to fetch the list of threads for a forum. Nil overhead.

[visualAd]

If you are just fetching a list of threads you do not need a relational link to the posts table. If you want to count the number of posts in the thread you'd need to link up with the table and consequently deal with more records.

Assuming anyone actually replies to the thread.

[dclamp]

ok thanks you guys for the replies, but this is just a tiny little forum for my small site. i dont need anything fancy. All deletes are deleted right away, i dont need any bells and whistles added.

One table works fine for me.

[penagate]

If you want to count the number of posts in the thread you'd need to link up with the table and consequently deal with more records.

Actually, you're right. I wasn't thinking, but you would need a predicate to count the replies. I suppose my logic only makes sense if each thread had its own table of replies, which would be idiocy.

Assuming anyone actually replies to the thread.

I'm sure dclamp can reply to his own threads.

[RobDog888]

Why have a "forums" on a social networking site? Seems illogical.

"RabidFriends" Is it a site for friends with th rabies?

[dclamp]

"RabidFriends" Is it a site for friends with th rabies?

deja-vu... yes, rabid people come together and talk about their stories...