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groups database

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:06 am
by pleigh
hi, i have created so far 3 tables for a groups site (like yahoo grouops) namely userprofile, groupsprofile and groupsmessage...i was thinking how and where i can put additional fields...i'm confused, here's the catch...in a single account, a user might have multiple groups to join, now, i cant figure out how i can make the logic in the database...should i add additional field in the userprofile table??or should i create another table for this...i don't really know much about mysql and logic structure for larger project...i hope u can help me...thanks in advance.. :)

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:57 pm
by painperdu
If you'd like to study up on this problem and solution then look up "Database normalization" over the net.

In short, it looks like you'll need at least 4 tables :

1. User_db -A table to hold unique information about the user.
2. Groups_db -A table to hold unique information about the groups.
3. GroupMembers_db -A table to connect users to groups.
4. Messages_db -A table to relate Messages to Users and Groups.

User_db would then have a unique primary key to indentify each unique row (each user).

Groups_db would have a unique primary key for each row (each group).

GroupMembers_db would would have a unique primary key for each row as well as foreign keys relating back to Groups_db and User_db and connects which users belong to which groups.

Message_db would have a unique primary key for each row (each message) as well as a foreign key relating back to GroupMembers_db.

Get the idea?