What you're describing will work just fine (both how you've had the db laid out, and how you're discussing changing the layout). If you're dealing with 100,000 active users, it might make the most sense to divide this data into about 5 tables (for example, basic user data, auth code data, login data, etc.) all linked with your userID field. You might want to look at encrypting your data as well as using SSL on your login page so that the transmission of data over the network is encrypted too. If your auth code is delete after 1st authorization, you could set it up so you delete whole record out of auth table. In other words, status might be more appropriate in basic user data table because in scenario you describe moving to, you'll be keeping all those rows in the one table just for the status code. Why not keep status code in the same table you're keeping their name? Makes more sense that way to me.
Best of luck, Ken Krauss http://www.kcwebdev.com --- In [email protected], David Halliday <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > hello, > I have this table to be used in a login system. > it consists of 20 columns (userid, password, security > question, answer, email, mobile, phone, etc) > > The last 2 columns are "status" and "activation code". > > The activation code is a 48-digit alphanumeric string > sent to new members in an email. When the link is > clicked, users activate their membership. in the > process. the status changes from 'pending' to > 'active', and the long code is deleted. > > The question is: since the code is only going to be > used once, is it wise to have it in the same table as > explained above? > > Would it be better and faster if one created a simple > table of 3 columns, like > userid | status | activation code > which is used solely for the activation process. > > The expected number of users is 100,000 and I am just > worried about speed. > > Thanks, > > David > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for > your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http:// uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html >
