Question

I am trying to implement a private messaging system in rails and I need help with the design of the database. I have read around and I have come up with many valid alternatives, but I was wondering if anyone knew of such a schema that would ultimately be scalable. I appreciate any help or links.

EDIT:
The database schema would basically have two things

1.subject

2.message

I was thinking of implementing two tables

Messages

subject_text

sender_id

reciever_id

has_many texts

Texts

content_text

I am in no way any good at database schema but I appreciate the help while I am learning

Answer 1

A very simple and straight-forward design would be..

User
----------------
userID
userName
...
...
...

Messages
---------------
messageID
title
body

User_Messages
----------------
senderID (userID of sender)
recieverID (userID of reciever)
messageID (messageID of relative message)

This design will simplify your searches too. You can add or remove columns according to your needs.