Question

I’ve got an small issue, I’m trying to make my own forum, but I am stuck at something.

I have 3 tables, 1 users with a user_level (Authentication level).

forum_section which contains all the sections with a user_level again.

But how can I link forum_section.user_level to forum_topics.user_level.

So if I define: forum_section.user_level = 4 for forum_section.section_id = 1.

For example:

Someone wants to visit the forum_section id 1 then they must have a auth level of 4.
And when they go to the topic it then again checks if the user level is 4, but I do not want to manual set the topic level, topic level must always be the same as the section level.

I’ve googled for this, but I can’t really find a good manual for it. I guess it has something to do with: "foreign keys"?

Okay, let me explain a bit more just to be sure.
I have 3 tables

Table User
username = Wesley
userlevel < for example 4(admin).

Table section
section_id = 3
section_name = News
section_level = 3 <require level to view.

table topics
topic_id = 123
topic_name = I like candy
topic_level = Needs to be the same as section_level so if I change section_level it automatically changes this too.

Answer 1

You should have to manage your database by using master and transaction tables.

Your table format should look like this:

table name: user   

user_id user_name
   1       abc
   2       xyz  
   3       pqr
   4       new  


table2 name : forum_section

forum_id       user_id      forum_name
    1              4          abc
    2              4          jkl 
    3              2          cbd
    4              3          lmn

Now, you can JOIN these two tables and make a query as you want, like this:

SELECT forum_id FROM forum_section as fs,user as u WHERE fs.user_id = u.user_id AND fs.user_id = 4

This may help you. Please write if you need more help!