MySQL Forum... reply to message?

[Anon]

I've created a forum in php with a MySQL backend, but at the moment it is more like a message board because I don't know how I can create a script that adds a reply to a certain message.

For example I have one table, you fill in a form and the data goes in the table. I retrieve this data using a query and print it on screen... simple enough.

I'd like to make it so that you can post a reply and whenever that message is accessed the replys are printed on screen as well. So they are sort of appended to the message, not like threaded discussion.

I haven't a clue how to do this, can somebody point me to a tutorial (not the hotwired one, I've tried that) or give me an idea of the methods involved... thanx

[Anon]

Use a unique id number for each main (parent) message. Have a field in the table for a parent id number. When you reply to a message, insert the parent id of the reply.

When you pull your messages out of the DB, display the message and then query for all the child messages that match the parent id.

You could use a table join to simplify this, or simply do one query for the parent and one query for all the child messages.

[Anon]

You could add a field to hold an identifier for each thread.

To retrieve them the query would be something like:

SELECT whatever FROM theTable WHERE message.thread = requestedThread ORDER BY date