Question

Your idea about this 2 tables db(mysql) design?

Asked by: MOSTAGHASSI

Hi;
I want design a db(mysql+php) for a magazine online with 10 parts (and some subparts- News,Sport,Culture,Technology and ...) my db consits of 2 tables which can cover multilevel as a tree:

tb_categories
.........................................................................
cat_id(pk)          cat_name           parent_cat_id



tb_main
.................................................................................................................................
id(pk)   cat_id(fk)    textbody    date     item_photos    source    remark


1-Is this a good design? (if not please add your idea) while at the future   tb_main must have more than 500,000 records.

2-Which fildes in   tb_main   must index that i get best speed and performance?

thanks in advance

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Asked On
2009-10-31 at 01:43:52ID24860427
Topics

Design & Methodology

,

PHP and Databases

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: fiboPosted on 2009-10-31 at 09:22:29ID: 25710309

1 - Note that is also a FK

2 - For performance, I would probably index PKs (of course) and FKs
Depending on your requirements, in tb_main 'source' might be a FK as well, aind if yo should probably be indexed.
And depending on your content, ypou'll probably add some index on other fields in tb_main (date seems a mandatory candidate!)

3 - It seems today useful to be able to add "tags" to photos or texts... so another table would be needed for that, as well as a FK  in tb_main... but you will probably want extra tables for users who created recors  in  tb_main and/or visitors

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2009-10-31 at 09:44:42ID: 25710394

As a general rule, you want to index any fields that are going to be used as discriminators in queries - in WHERE, GROUP, etc.

You might also consider adding a synopsis as a reduced set of the textbody and keywords that you (or someone) might use to identify the row of tb_main.  These might be indexed as FULLTEXT to facilitate searching.

Whether this is a "good design" just depends on how much complexity you want to add to the design.  I can think of lots of ways to search a collection of magazine articles.  Each way might lend itself to a different index or a different collection of related tables.

If you want to look at a good paradigm for this design, consider the Bulletin Board software.  Each post is like a little magazine article, and they are grouped into categories with keywords, moderator control, responses, etc.  Very useful data structures!

Best regards, ~Ray

 

by: fiboPosted on 2009-10-31 at 10:02:51ID: 25710479

Oops
1 - Note that parent_cat_id is also a FK...


 

by: MOSTAGHASSIPosted on 2009-10-31 at 10:07:00ID: 25710493

Thanks for comments.

I must explain that all of content of these db make by me and not users.

For fibo:

-In your first point 1,which filed must be FK,i think that you have forgotten to write.

-why "source" must be Fk ? my mean from source is a site or  newspaper that i have copied this article.

-What are tags and how can i make another table for it?

For Ray_Paseur:

-What is "adding a synopsis"? how can i do it?

-As i said above i fill this db my self ,it is in my mind a things like (time.com )but very smaller so i would like to know that for starting i will not encounter with problems and if it was needed at the future can i add another tables to these tables for enhance facilitis?


 

by: MOSTAGHASSIPosted on 2009-10-31 at 10:09:43ID: 25710502

parent_cat_id is (FK) IN tb_main?

 

by: fiboPosted on 2009-10-31 at 10:29:26ID: 25710578

1 - <<parent_cat_id is (FK) IN tb_main?>>
no, in categories since these values must be in the values of the primary key of the table tb_categories (although the root might create some problem)

2 - source: if it is the full url of some article, then it is not a FK. If howvere your are citing just the name of the source (or the home page of a site), you might consider ptting these in a table on their own, and so there would be a FK

3 - "tags" would be some keywords related to the article, that would be selected by you or some users, and that would improve article searching and finding, some "additional categories".

4 - if the db is going to be filled by you, even in an automated way, probably you are not going tp reach 250K records soon. So don't take that figure now. When you will have more than 10K, I would think you will have improved your knowledge and exêrience and in fact work on another version of your scripts (but still keeping your contents)

5 - This should be your main concern, defining your content table so that it will be easily ported to a modified version of your scripts: plan to store and handle UTF-8 data for all your tables, etc.

 

by: MOSTAGHASSIPosted on 2009-10-31 at 11:18:20ID: 25710854

I put  null value for root of each categories ,so why "although the root might create some problem" ? the filling below is ok?

cat_id(pk)          cat_name           parent_cat_id
...............................................................................
1                        news                   null
2                        weather               1
3                        politic                   1
4                        sport                   null
5                        tennis                  4
6                        basketball            4
7                        men-tennis          5

-I it possible that you give me an example regarding "tags" and structure of table that i put ?

- "modified version of your scripts" What is your mean?

 

by: fiboPosted on 2009-10-31 at 12:02:03ID: 25711046

tb_tags

tag_id(pk)   tag
1        usa
2        germany
3        olympic games
4        london
5        obama
6        quiche
7        art
8        windows7
9        cooking
10      wine
11      beatles
12      internet

If you have a story about Obama meeting the Beatles in London... you might devide to tag the story with obama, london, beatles
you might also have some nice receipe for a meal that you would tag with quiche and wine, etc

 

by: MOSTAGHASSIPosted on 2009-10-31 at 12:44:38ID: 25711229

thanks;
-My categories table is ok?

-But how can i use this tag table  with another table (tb_main)?  tag_id(pk) must be a filed in (tb_main)?  and where must i retrive these tags?

 

by: fiboPosted on 2009-10-31 at 15:07:51ID: 25711755

Forget about the tags for now, it just blurs your main direction.
The leatinship would be many-to-many, and would need an extra table.

Your categories table is OK. I just remrked that the "father key" is a FK to th PK of the same table.

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2009-10-31 at 15:10:53ID: 25711772

Looking over this thread, it seems like you might benefit from some foundation in how to use PHP and MySQL to build a data base driven web site.  This book might be a good investment:
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql4/

Best regards, ~Ray

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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