Forum Posts, how?

[Pixeltor]

I'm creating a website with a very basic forum on it. I was wondering how a post would be stored in the database. My first guess would be a table with columns such as: "topictitle" VARCHAR(128) , "user"(who posted it) INT(id of user), and a "id" INT(11) of the post as to keep track of total posts.

but how would the actual content of the post be stored? as a VARCHAR(one billion)?, It seems like a data-comsuming method, and I have seen some posts on coding forums that are quite long. basically, Is there a limit of characters?, Is there a better way to store the content of someone's post?

thanks - Pixeltor

[swordz]

type = text. Otherwise, flat file storage in a dedicated folder with the names being the id.

It really is much easier to just use a phpbb3 forum, rather than write your own... But good luck!

swordz

[Pixeltor]

It really is much easier to just use a phpbb3 forum, rather than write your own... But good luck!

But where's the fun in that?, actually, the whole site will be based off of posts by an administrator.

ran into a weird problem when creating the registration page:

CODE

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username=".$_POST['username']."");
if(mysql_num_rows($query))
{
echo "Username already exists";
}

I get this error:
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /www/uuuq.com/p/i/x/pixeleum/htdocs/registration.php on line 27

I'm pretty sure $query is a valid query

[swordz]

CODE

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `username`='" . mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['username']) . "'");

Try that, I'm not sure whether it will work.

Also, if there's no such user, $query === FALSE. Therefore, it's not a valid MySQL result.

swordz

[Pixeltor]

hey, that works!, thanks a lot.

Also, if there's no such user, $query === FALSE. Therefore, it's not a valid MySQL result.

btw, I would want the query to evaluate to false because that would mean that the username is not already used, right?