Question

How would you go about implementing private mail functionality such like Bebo/Facebook and other social networking sites?

You have the option to post public comments on a member’s profile, but you can also send a private mail.

I was considering using XML and just storing it as a field in that particular user’s record. Does this sound like a bad idea?

Anyone have a better suggestion? I am unsure as to which would be the best solution.

Answer 1

I may have misunderstood what you want, but how about creating a mail table, with for example

• Sender
• Recipient
• Subject
• Message
• Sent
• Read (bool)

And then just add a row to that table when someone sends a private message to someone.