My database for a forum

[applenerd]

Hey guys. I am most likely going to be building my own forum. I am wondering about how I should go about making my db. I will have one big db called forums. Then what should I do. Have a table made for each topic and then a big table with all the topics and the id of the table with the rest of posts for that topic? Or should I have one table with all of the posts and a "parent id" for which topic they are under. I am leaning towards a table for each topic but I would like some guidance here.

thanks,
axel

[r937]

one table for each topic would be a mistake

i personally would use only one table for all topics/threads, posts, and replies

[applenerd]

Ok, so not lots of tables. So here would be the table data:
id | description | thread_content | poster | views | parent_id | type etc...
The parent id would be the id of the original post and views would only be kept for the kind of type (either topic or reply) topic.

sound good?
axel

[r937]

that's how i'd do it, except i wouldn't need views or type to tell me whether it was a topic or a reply -- a reply has a parent_id value, a thread starter or topic doesn't, its parent_id is null

[applenerd]

Thank you. I'll give that a try!

axel