Creating a Forum

They have: 231 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

When programmers create forums (such as this one), do they store all information in the one database or do they use a combination of databases and text files?

I am playing around with a forum right now and I am not going to store the messages in the database. This will make the database grow in size too quickly. I will use text files for this.

Is this a better idea?
Could someone explain how UBB works?

:: Lloyd Hassell :: http://www14.brinkster.com/lloydh ::

They have: 98 posts

Joined: Dec 1999

The UBB stores all files in a flat text format, and does not use a database. This really is not to its benefit, well other than every server can run a forum with flat text files, but that is about the only plus.

It is slow when large and will eventually fail, or lag so badly searching through hundreds of thousands of messages and members that it will choke up.

A MySQl database (or something equal) is the wave of the future message boards, they are scalable and fast, as well as more stable and secure.

I have a fairly large forum and I switched from the UBB just recently to a MySQL/PHP based one, and it is working wonders. No more worring about pruning messages or archiving files, now they dont slow it down one bit

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We're Here Forums!

They have: 850 posts

Joined: Jul 1999

I am in the slow process of developing a forum in PHP with a mysql backend right now. I am storing everything in the database in different tables.
1 table to store all the registered users information. 1 table for all the forum information (used when listing the forums) and than 1 table for each forum.

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Personal Site
http://www.wiredstart.com : The Technology Start Page

They have: 141 posts

Joined: Aug 1999

I already have a mysql/php forum up and running. It doesn't have a front or a backend because I don't know what that means. It does, however, work fairly well, though it currently lacks the features a good BBS need. It should have more features coming up though, as well as a better interface.

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[url=http://dlo.net[/url]
We know Have Game Reviews

They have: 324 posts

Joined: Dec 1999

I am also trying to make my own PHP/mySQL forum...I will have to read more about PHP now though to complete it.

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