Question

CREATE TABLE `messages` (
  `message_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `message_project_id` int(7) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `message_time` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `message_from_user_id` int(7) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `message_to_user_id` int(7) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `message_details` text COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`message_id`)
)


CREATE TABLE `project` (
  `project_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `project_user_id` int(7) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `project_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `project_status` varchar(50) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
 PRIMARY KEY (`project_id`)
) 

What im looking to retreive is the latest messages to user #2 for each project.

User #2 is the owner of the project so can receive messages from many interested parties.

The actual page will display a list of things “To Do” for user #2. I want to find any messages for current open projects in which user #2 has received a message, but not yet sent one

so if user #1 sent a message to user #2 there would be a row in the messages table

message_id | project_id | message_time | message_from_user_id | message_to_user_id | message_details
30 | 12 | 1304707966 | 1 | 2 | Hello user number two, thank you for your interest in my project
31 | 12 | 1304707970 | 2 | 1 | Hello user number one, Your project looks interesting
32 | 12 | 1304707975 | 3 | 1 | Hello user number one, here is my first message, im user number three.  I want to do your project
32 | 13 | 1304707975 | 7 | 1 | Hello user number one, here is my first message, im user number seven.  I want to do your other project

What I’ve tried so far but dont quite work:
//this will get me the most current message for each project but not separate by user

SELECT cur.*, p.*
FROM messages cur
LEFT JOIN messages next ON cur.message_project_id = next.message_project_id AND cur.message_time < next.message_time
LEFT JOIN project p ON p.project_id = cur.message_project_id
WHERE next.message_time IS NULL
AND (cur.message_from_user_id = 2 OR cur.message_to_user_id = 2)
AND (p.project_status LIKE 'open' OR p.project_status LIKE 'started')
AND p.project_user_id = 2
ORDER BY cur.message_time DESC 

//This will separate by user, but not return the most recent message text

SELECT *
FROM messages m
LEFT JOIN project p ON p.project_id = m.message_project_id
WHERE (message_from_user_id = 2 OR message_to_user_id = 2 )
AND (p.project_status LIKE 'open' OR p.project_status LIKE 'started')
AND p.project_user_id = 2
GROUP BY project_id
ORDER BY message_time DESC 

Once the data gets back to Php i check to see if the most recent message is TO user #2 and if it is then post a “You need to reply” message to his screen.

Answer 1

It would have probably helped if you had given some example output that covers most of your cases. Judging from your comments and after rereading a couple of times though, I think this is what you’re looking for:

SELECT
    <column list>
FROM
    Messages M
INNER JOIN Projects P ON
    P.project_id = M.message_project_id AND
    P.project_status IN ('open', 'started') AND
    P.project_user_id = 2
WHERE
    M.message_to_user_id = 2 AND
    NOT EXISTS (
        SELECT *
        FROM Messages M2
        WHERE
            M2.message_from_user_id = 2 AND
            M2.message_project_id = M.message_project_id AND
            M2.message_to_user_id = M.message_from_user_id AND
            M2.message_time >= M.message_time
    )

This will get you all of the messages for all projects for the user where he hasn’t sent a message back to the sender for that project. You can add an ORDER BY of course.