Re: BB question: Read and Unread messages

since you guys talking about phpbb i got a question :) on the session page why do they create two cookie one $cookiename_data & other $cookiename_sid and why only the $cookiename_data is created not $cookiename_sid not ?? i hope you guys can shed some light on this.. as i am also donig some work with phpbb.. really like its power and robustness cheers ----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin French" <justin@indent.com.au> To: "Simon" <velikanka@hotmail.com>; <php-general@lists.php.net> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 2:28 AM Subject: Re: [PHP] BB question: Read and Unread messages > on 16/05/03 9:04 AM, Simon (velikanka@hotmail.com) wrote: > > > Can someone point me to the right direction. What should I use to create BB > > system like PHPBB. I have created and understood everything else except > > system that control which messages user has read, and which didn't. > > > > Where should I save that data: mysql, cookie, session? > > For starters, you would be able to dig through the database structure of > something like PHPBB to get a good idea -- i haven't done this, so i'm > speculating. > > > Secondly, by defining what you want, you should be able to answer your own > own question: > > > 1. sessions are a PER SESSION thing, so using sessions would mean that next > time I visit the BB, it wouldn't remember what posts I've looked at last > time, which rules this out. > > > 2. cookies are stored on the client. This means that: > - they can be deleted by the user > - they may not be accepted (shared computer, security freak, library, net > cafe, etc) > - if i read 30 messages, this *may* mean there's 30 cookies stored on my > computer. if (in the case of my own board) i've read EVERY message, i'd > have 5000+ cookies by now. > - there is a limit to how much data a cookie can store, so it *may not* be > possible to store a list of every post read in one cookie. > > If you want to have permanent records of who visited what, and want to > ensure it works for the most people possible, then cookies will not be the > answer IMHO > > > 3. which leaves you with databases :) > > I haven't attempted what you want to do, but my guess is that it's a pretty > large (many rows) table which logs the userid and the postid -- but there > may certainly be a smarter way. > > on my own bb's, i chose to have an 'active posts' page (showing only post > with activity in the last hour|day|week|fortnight|month, which seems to be > working really well. > > > Justin > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >