blog structure

[alexgeek]

I'm looking to making my own blog
i don't want to use someone elses code because i want to learn how to do it myself and updates and new features would be very confusing.
so this is my quesyion.
basically, how are the structured in general.
like are entries in an external file and are included using an ssi.
or are they stored in a database.
also how do i do permalinks.
and how do you access a certain entry,
like:
blog.com/blog.php?article=1
or
blog.com/blog/articles/1

Thanks

[karinne]

Everything is in a database.

You should have a table for you blog entries, one for the categories and one for the comments.

To access entries you would do the ?articleid=1 and then query the database with that.

[alexgeek]

okay so say i have a database called blog
with two tables called categories and comments.
but what columns would they have?

[karinne]

You have a database called blog with 3 tables called blogs, categories and comments

Let's start with the blog table ... what do you think you should have in there?

[1840dsgn]

posts: title, timestamp, id, entry, category etc.

categories: category id, category name, description

comments: user id, comment, timestamp

user: user id, name, email, url

etc.

Its called database design, you need to think of every piece of information tyour going to need and organise it within the database so it can all link together without causing duplicates. try a search on database normalisatiopn...see what you get.

In the small brainstorma above when a user signs up thier details go into user table, when they comment their comment goes into the cooments table with their user id.

When we wanna display the comment we grab the user id, and use the user id to query to usert table to get the users info and sisplay it aloing with the comment.

This prevents duplicate data. if you didn't split it into user and coomments your comments table would probably be something like: username, url, emal, comment, timestamp...etc.

And if the same user commented 20 times their detyails would be duplicated each time.

By spliting it there is no duplication.

[karinne]

Originally Posted by 1840dsgn

posts: title, timestamp, id, entry, category etc.

categories: category id, category name, description

comments: user id, comment, timestamp

user: user id, name, email, url

etc.

ARGH!!!!! SO much for getting people to try and figure this out by themselves (with a little guidance!)

[pa007]

Remember too this is about content management. If one day you decide you want add images or maybe a recipe to a post don't just put an image in that post or type that recipe up into the blog post window. The reason for this is that say a few months down the line you want to be able to search through all of your recipes or all of you photos then you will struggle whereas if it is a totally separate section then the possibilities are much better. All you o then is relate that image or to a particular blog entry.

This all may sound a bit much at first but you need to understand the idea behind content management. If you do it right it will be completely scalable and expandable which is what you want really.

Pete.

[1840dsgn]

ARGH!!!!! SO much for getting people to try and figure this out by themselves (with a little guidance!)

yea but they're not definitiver ansswers liker Pete said. you wouldn't get too fasr using what i posted. they're examples opf what might be in each table and examples i used to explain normalisation.

theres still a lot of work to do. I'm not gonna tell people how. I had to learn it so everyone else can as well.

Sorry I'm in a bad mood lol.

[alexgeek]

Originally Posted by pa007

Remember too this is about content management. If one day you decide you want add images or maybe a recipe to a post don't just put an image in that post or type that recipe up into the blog post window.
Pete.

that's not too hard is it? to add an image I'd just add a column wouldn't I?
though for editingm, I guess I'd need to make some system where i can edit the post in textarea form or something I'm guessing?

[alexgeek]

Originally Posted by 1840dsgn

yea but they're not definitiver ansswers liker Pete said. you wouldn't get too fasr using what i posted. they're examples opf what might be in each table and examples i used to explain normalisation.

theres still a lot of work to do. I'm not gonna tell people how. I had to learn it so everyone else can as well.

Sorry I'm in a bad mood lol.

It doesn't really matter for this one as pao007 said I need to make sure i have everything i need to save the hassle.

[pa007]

Well you could just add another column but ideally that should be in its own table with all its own data such as when it was taken, when it was uploaded, what its of, etc. This way if you wanted a really snazzy image gallery in the future it would be very simple as the data is isolated. By just adding a column you reduce your options for the future and you reduce the usefulness of that image.

Pete.

[alexgeek]

okay
well if i don't go out on the town tonight.
I'll start

[alexgeek]

hey what should my entries column format thing be?
I'm on about the thing which says how many letters can be in each row etc.
thanks

[pa007]

Probably longtext but I'm no expert, really.

Pete.

[alexgeek]

Yeah I think so
Oh and could someone tell me what BLOB is?

[alexgeek]

And what should the date column be?
I want to insert into it using the CURDATE command.
thanks

[pa007]

Well it's a number so int which I assume means integer (whole number).

Pete.

[alexgeek]

i can't get this to work :s

Code: Select all

create table entries (id MEDIUMINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, title VARCHAR(100), image VARCHAR(100), entry LONGTEXT, category VARCHAR(50), date DATE);

I get "incorrect table definition; there can only be one auto column and it must be defined as a key"

eh ?

[pa007]

This is how I would create my DB for a blog, this is pretty simple but the principles are there:

PHP: Select all

 <?php

mysql_connect ('localhost', 'username', 'password') ;
mysql_select_db ('db');

$sql = "CREATE TABLE blog_entries (
  id int(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  timestamp int(20) NOT NULL,
  title varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  entry longtext NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (id),
  UNIQUE KEY id (id)
)";

$result = mysql_query($sql) or print ("Can't create the table 'blog_entries' in the database.<br />" . $sql . "<br />" . mysql_error());

mysql_close();
?>

You see we have our id as our primary and unique key. This is how you would call those entries from the db. The other fields are self-explanatory.

Pete.

[alexgeek]

Thanks pete I'll try that now