making a forum, what to include

[Anon]

I'm gonna make a small forum for a web site and this is my first time with php and mysql.

(have html/perl/++ experience)

Question is, roughly what should I include in the database.

My thoughts is:

one table with login/user/permissions/other user information

one table with topics and replies (dont think I need threads, expect many topics and few replies)

Should a database just include filenames for the text in topics/replies or should it include all the actual text in the topics/replies.

What are your suggestions ? 🙂

[Anon]

I'd do it something like this... (basics, you can add more fields)

users:
userID int not null primary key auto_increment
userName varchar(12) not null
userPassword varchar(12) not null

forums:
forumID int not null primary key auto_increment
forumName varchar(32) not null
forumDescription text not null

topics:
topicID int not null primary key auto_increment
forumID int not null
userID int not null
topicTitle varchar(128) not null

posts:
postID int not null primary key auto_increment
threadID int not null
userID int not null
postTitle varchar(128)
postText text

[[deleted]]

There are some good forums on the Inet. Just download a few and c what other ppl do. Its easier to delete stuff that u dont need than to figure it al out on trail and error 😉

[Anon]

Thanks alot 🙂