Table Visualization?

[ArcGames]

I am using PHP and MySql

I am a very visual person, I have to see what something looks like visually before I can write code for it. So with that being said......

On my site, each user is assigned a unique user id. Users can be friends with each other. Each user has a profile. On that profile, if a different user has permission, that user will be able to post comments, pics, videos, etc..etc..etc.. (data). These permissions will be stored in a table. So I will have 3 separate tables, MEMBERS (users) table, DATA (comments, pics, videos, etc) table, and PERMISSIONS (see permissions below) table.

The permissions that I will be using are..

• Everyone

• Only my friends

• Only my friends and their friends

• Only me

For the life of me, I just can't visualize the PERMISSIONS table, and I need help doing that!

With all this in mind, can someone please post a visual representation of what a PERMISSIONS TABLE would look like to accomplish what I am asking, please?

Thanks!

[big_nerd]

there are many ways to do it -- and the way I will show you would work for a small site, but if you plan on it growing into hundreds of thousands of monthly users, you may need to upgrade 🙂

Permissions

 _________________________________________
| user_id | type      | permission        |
```````````````````````````````````````````| 12      | pictures  | immediate_friends |
| 12      | videos    | immediate_friends |
| 12      | comments  | all_friends       |
| 12      | phone_num | only_me           |
| 36      | pictures  | all_friends       |
| 36      | videos    | only_me           |
| 36      | comments  | all_friends       |
| 36      | phone_num | all_friends       |```````````````````````````````````````````

Where user_id points to the id column of the users table, type could be page, or whatever you want.

When you are displaying that page, you can check to see what the viewing user has permissions for.

Hope this makes sense...