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phptreeviewforum

Getting started with a tree view/forum in PHP

I am developing a tree view forum with PHP, MVC, and AJAX. My database has two tables, as follows:

thread

  • id_thread
  • name
  • creator
  • date
  • description
  • parent_id

answer

  • id_answer
  • answer
  • message
  • user
  • date

I am trying to develop a forum with n threads, that I would like to visually present in a tree view. I am confused on how to get started with creating this tree view.

My approach is in the first level of threads is just autoincrement, then when the user click a thread, the parent_id of the next thread is the parent_id of the fist level, and so on. Is there a better way to structure my data?

Any advice would be helpful, as I am a beginner trying to get started. Thank you for your time.

Solution

  • I've found the best way to display this client-side this is with the YUI TreeView.

    Basically, you can pass it data in a variety of different formats (JSON is usually used) and it will generate this interactive tree in a div for you.

    YUI TreeView Example

    You can then add listeners for specific events, such as clicks and what not.

    Here is an example: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/treeview/default_tree.html