Messaging System

[phouse512]

Hello,

I'm a pretty basic php user, and I'm wondering how someone would go about implementing a message system into a website with different users. It doesn't have to be anything specific, I'm just wondering about the basic design of it.

Thanks

[network18]

browse around you will get thousand of free website design templates

[Atli]

Hey.

What do you mean by "a message system"?
Like a blog, or like a messenger?

If it's a blog, there are probably hundreds of codes available online for you to choose from. Wordpress being something of a leader among them.

If you mean a messenger system, then PHP alone is probably not the best way to go. Something involving AJAX wold be more promising.

[phouse512]

Not a IM app or blog

I don't mean anything really complicated, I'm mainly just wondering how you would store data from a message that one user sent to another. You wouldn't be able to store it in databases right?

Why not?
You can use PHP to send emails/store messages from one user to another in a DB. This implementation can be as simple or as complex as you like.

If you're interested in making a simple messaging system. A possible mysql setup would be:

users table
user_id
username
pw
email

msgs table
msg_id
msg_title
msg_body
msg_sender (foreign key on user_id)
msg_recipient (foreign key on user_id)
msg_status (e.g. pending/read/etc)
notify_when_open (find out if your msg has been read)

If you're new to php, you will have some fun creating forms for msgs and validating /cleaning input and then improving the design to incorporate diffrent msb folders, send to multiple recipients etc. This is a really good 'project' to get your teeth into. Ready made scripts may be useful, but if you're starting out, they may cause more confusion than anything, especially if they're object-orientated.

[phouse512]

Ohh...I see, I wasn't sure about the database design part. I'll go try that and then post it back here to see if its ok.

Thanks

[SKANK!!!!!]

this is what i "derived" off of LOL.
http://www.astahost.com/Private-Message-System-t18247.html