Threaded forum algorithm

[Rike]

Hallo everybody!

I am looking for some information about creating PHP threaded forum (with MySQL). BB forum is easy - db table with forums, topics and posts, every post has foreign key to topic, topic to forum and it's done. But if I want something like Disqus, how to do this more efficiently? How to collect posts in db with minimum query needed to render any thread?

And what about post rating? How to prevent user from sending more then one rating?

[requinix]

Database: learn about adjacency list (requires a parent->child relationship) versus nested sets (requires... something more complex). They have complementary advantages and disadvantages - meaning one's strength is the other's weakness.

Post rating: require a login and track every user's rating so you'll know if they've voted before.

[Rike]

Thank you, nested sets looks very good for me 

And what about ratings and optimal db solution? For example: post_id, user_id table looks to be very big.

[requinix]

If you don't mind I'm moving this to the MySQL forum as you're asking more about database design than coding.

 

Yes, there will be a lot of rows, but databases are designed for this sort of thing. As long as you're using good normalization practices and proper indexes, everything will perform smoothly.