Home/ Questions/Q 7056449
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-28T03:52:06+00:00

I have a Private messaging system using PHP and mySQL with notification. The database

  • 0

I have a Private messaging system using PHP and mySQL with notification.

The database table has following fields(not all listed) — message_tbl:

MessageID
senderUserID
RecUserID
Message
Subject
DateTime
Status - whether read or not i.e 0/1

All replies are stored in a second table, since each message creates a thread. A thread exist within the parent message, so everytime a parent message is loaded all its replies also are loaded with it.
The second table looks a bit like this: – replies_tbl

messageID - FK
senderUserID
rstatus - how should i use this?
Mesage
DateTime

I need to show count of all the unread messages.
At the moment i run a sql count function to get total unread messages from the message_tbl where status is 0 and userid equal to RecUserID, the easy part.

But i have a small issue is how to get count for the replies table? Can the database design be improved?

thanks guys.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    As I see it, a reply is, itself, a message, so why is it going into a separate table. What happens with a reply to a reply? It would seem you would have a null FK at that point.

    My first thought is:

    • Add ParentID column to Messages table
    • Set ParentID to 0 for root messages
    • Set ParentID to the MessagesID if it’s a reply

    With that structure, you could easily track replies to replies and the thread could continue as deep as you wanted it to …

    Just my thoughts, though …

    • 0