Anyone know of a Forum tutorial?

[Blob]

I haven't created any forums and would like to do so (to learn more, and have the file in my useful scripts folder 😛). I think I probably would be able to do it on my own but it'd help if I had a tutorial, or article to follow...

Does anybody know of one? I think here, and on webmonkey, there were tutorials on that, but I can't find them. 🙁

Thanks.

[mwichmann4]

its not too bad to acutally figure out, the key to a forum is all in the database. the actual code is not bad. I have a sample database that shows you a simple structure of it if you want it, its mysql.

[Blob]

I think it'd probably be fairly easy - if I have the following tables:
Topics:
ID - primary key
Username - poster's username
Name - Topic name
Date - timestamp
Last updated - so I arrange them.

Posts:
ID - primary key
Topic ID - has the same value as the ID of the topic it belongs to.
Username - poster's name
Text - text
Date - timestamp
last edited - will display at bottom of posts

Members:
ID - primary key
Username
Password

Then I could just display the topics in order of the date they were last updated, then the posts in order of their date posted. I think I could do it.

What's your database like? Is it different?
Thanks.

[JakesSA]

If you will to invest a bit of money...get the following book:
Proffesional PHP programming by Wrow publications....good book...its in their :-)

[mwichmann4]

/*
SQLyog v3.03
Host - localhost : Database - bettymag_forum

---

Server version 3.23.55-nt
*/

create database if not exists bettymag_forum;

use bettymag_forum;

/
Table struture for comments
/

CREATE TABLE comments (
id int(255) NOT NULL auto_increment,
for_user varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
comment blob NOT NULL,
by_user varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table struture for forum_admin
/

CREATE TABLE forum_admin (
id int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment,
admin_name varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
admin_pass varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table data for bettymag_forum.forum_admin
/

INSERT INTO forum_admin VALUES (1,'admin','admin');

/
Table struture for main_cat
/

CREATE TABLE main_cat (
main_id int(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
main_name varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
sub_id int(150) default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (main_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table data for bettymag_forum.main_cat
/

INSERT INTO main_cat VALUES (1,'Cell Phones',1);

/
Table struture for replies
/

CREATE TABLE replies (
reply_id int(200) NOT NULL auto_increment,
subject varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
message blob NOT NULL,
user varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
thread_id int(100) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (reply_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table struture for sub_cat
/

CREATE TABLE sub_cat (
sub_id int(200) NOT NULL auto_increment,
sub_name varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
sub_desc varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
total_post int(200) NOT NULL default '0',
total_threads int(250) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (sub_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table data for bettymag_forum.sub_cat
/

INSERT INTO sub_cat VALUES (1,'Nokia','Learn about your nokia',0,1);

/
Table struture for threads
/

CREATE TABLE threads (
thread_id int(250) NOT NULL auto_increment,
thread_name varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
sub_id int(50) NOT NULL default '0',
message blob NOT NULL,
user varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
replies int(200) default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (thread_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

/
Table data for bettymag_forum.threads
/

INSERT INTO threads VALUES (1,'Help turning it on',1,'Need help ','mwichmann4',0);

/
Table struture for users
/

CREATE TABLE users (
id int(50) NOT NULL auto_increment,
email varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
user_name varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
password varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
location varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
sex varchar(6) NOT NULL default '',
age int(3) NOT NULL default '0',
im varchar(100) default NULL,
web_address varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
intrest varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;