Php/Mysql output help!

[Starr]

Hello.

I'm wonderful with html and perl but am an "extreme" newbie at php so I could really use some help. I recently bought a templated personals script (php using sessions) and support hasn't answered any emails!

My problem:

There is an option to 'add a friend' (which is already coded) but I am unsure of how to "show" a users online friends list via html.

I'm assuming you connect to the database and get the members who are online first:

$online = mysql_db_query("SELECT * FROM membersOnline, members WHERE membersOnline.onid='$PHPSESSID' AND members.userName = membersOnline.userName");

then connect to the friends table??? But I'm not sure what the code should contain. Friends table has 3 rows "friendid" username" and "friendname".

I'm sure this is probably "elementary" for most of you. But if some one could please give an example to just get me started in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

[yelvington]

Your problem is your data model.

You're treating "friend" as an ENTITY unto itself, rather than a RELATIONSHIP between members.

Think of it like so:

User 1 can consider any number of other users to be a friend. Those users may not necessarily reciprocate.

The friendship table need contain only two columns: id and friendid. Neither should be unique.

MEMBERS
1 Fred
2 Barney
3 Wilma
4 Betty
5 Mr. Rubble

Fred and Barney consider each other to be friends. Each is friend with his/her own spouse. Wilma and Betty are friends. Mr. Rubble thinks Fred and Barney are friends, but they think think he's a jerk. The data now looks like this:

FRIENDSHIP
1 2
2 1
1 3
3 1
2 4
4 2
5 1
5 2

The necessary SQL is left to you.