On 6/29/06, Adam Zey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Just throwing an idea out there, but you can do the sorting entirely in
the SQL query. The trick is to figure out the best way.
The first idea that came to mind (and it sucks, but it works), is a text
field with padded numbers separated by dots, and the number is the
position in relation to the parent. So, with this:
Post 1
Post 3
Post 5
Post 6
Post 4
Post 7
Post 2
Post 8
Now, to the helper field would contain this for each post:
Post 1: 1
Post 2: 2
Post 3: 1.1
Post 4: 1.2
Post 5: 1.1.1
Post 6: 1.1.2
Post 7: 1.2.1
Post 8: 2.1
Now, by pure ascii sorting in that field, that would sort out to:
Post 1: 1
Post 3: 1.1
Post 5: 1.1.1
Post 6: 1.1.2
Post 4: 1.2
Post 7: 1.2.1
Post 2: 2
Post 8: 2.1
Which is the correct sort order. The depth of the post (how far to
indent it?) could be told in PHP by counting the number of periods, or
storing it in the database.
The indentation part I've already sort of figured out--it uses some
php to create a divs-within-divs structure, then using some simple CSS
I can get the appropriate level of indentation.
Now, how to figure out what to put in that field for each post? We need
to do two things. First, each post needs to store the number of
children. Next, when a new post is made, we do three things (Keeping in
mind that in real life I'd pad each entry in the sort helper field
with zeros on the left up to some large number):
1) Get the sort helper field of the parent and the parent's child count
field
2) Take the parent's sort help field, and add on a period and the
parent's child count plus one, insert the child.
3) Update the parent's child count.
OK, now, this method sucks. It's slow, and limits the number of child
posts to whatever you pad (In itself, not a big issue, if each post can
only have, say, a thousand direct childs (which each themselves can have
a thousand childs), not a huge issue). The slow part from ascii sorting
everything is the problem, I'd think.
I've never done threaded anything before, so I assume there's a better
solution. I'm just saying that the job CAN be done entirely with SQL
sorting. And probably faster than your proposed method of resorting
everything once PHP gets ahold of it. It should be noted that you'd need
each post to have a sort of superparent field that stored the topmost
parent so that you could do something simple like selecting ten
superparents and all their children.
Regards, Adam.
Thanks for the help Adam, I'll try to wrap my head around your response...
- Ben
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