If someone can answer some of the following questions, that would be great. I'm going to paste each SQL table definition, then ask questions about it. I'll number each question so I can keep track of which ones still aren't answered at the end of the week. :-) I'm sure Ed Poor will have more insightful and relevant questions than the ones I'm posting below; Brion and you other developers, please don't be offended at the tone of the questions. I seek knowledge only. CREATE TABLE archive ( ar_namespace tinyint(2) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ar_title varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', ar_text mediumtext NOT NULL, ar_comment tinyblob NOT NULL, ar_user int(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ar_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', ar_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', ar_minor_edit tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', ar_flags tinyblob NOT NULL ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 1) What is the "archive" table for? Is that where articles are stored? 2) Why is there a separate ar_user_text property? Is it because MySQL doesn't support subqueries? 3) What is ar_flags used for? And why is it a tinyblob? 4) Could we save a lot of disk space by replacing ar_title with article_id, and having all the article titles and their corresponding ids in a separate table? CREATE TABLE brokenlinks ( bl_from int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', bl_to varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', KEY bl_from (bl_from), KEY bl_to (bl_to(10)) ) TYPE=MyISAM; 5) Why is a broken link table necessary? Couldn't it be sufficient to do a query to find out which links are broken? Or is this another "we have no subqueries" issue? 6) I notice bl_from is an integer, while bl_to is a string; why the difference? I thought articles didn't have identifying id numbers; if so, what is bl_from then? CREATE TABLE cur ( cur_id int(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, cur_namespace tinyint(2) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cur_title varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', cur_text mediumtext NOT NULL, cur_comment tinyblob NOT NULL, cur_user int(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cur_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', cur_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', cur_restrictions tinyblob NOT NULL, cur_counter bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cur_ind_title varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', cur_ind_text mediumtext NOT NULL, cur_is_redirect tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cur_minor_edit tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cur_is_new tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', UNIQUE KEY cur_id (cur_id), KEY cur_namespace (cur_namespace), KEY cur_title (cur_title(20)), KEY cur_timestamp (cur_timestamp), FULLTEXT KEY cur_ind_title (cur_ind_title), FULLTEXT KEY cur_ind_text (cur_ind_text) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 7) What is the table cur for? I find myself understanding nothing about it; I even looked at the 3 default entries that are inserted, and they didn't clue me in. CREATE TABLE image ( img_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', img_size int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', img_description tinyblob NOT NULL, img_user int(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', img_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', img_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', KEY img_name (img_name(10)), KEY img_size (img_size), KEY img_timestamp (img_timestamp) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 8) Is img_user_text present for the "MySQL has no subquery functionality" reason? 9) What format are timestamps in? 10) Is there special PHP code that ensures an image with the same name, but differing descriptions or img_user properties are present in the table? Does MySQL not have the "UNIQUE" keyword which could eliminate all need for that code, or is it wanted to have a record of all changes to the description of an image? If so, I would recommend a slightly different solution, similar to that for the articles table. CREATE TABLE imagelinks ( il_from varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', il_to varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', KEY il_from (il_from(10)), KEY il_to (il_to(10)) ) TYPE=MyISAM; 11) Surely we could save space by using integer article ids? CREATE TABLE ipblocks ( ipb_address varchar(40) binary NOT NULL default '', ipb_user int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ipb_by int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ipb_reason tinyblob NOT NULL, ipb_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', KEY ipb_address (ipb_address), KEY ipb_user (ipb_user) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 12) No questions, but why is the KEY keyword used? Is this a MySQL trigger for making indexes? Also, theres a bunch of things that could use the UNIQUE keyword to save php code. CREATE TABLE links ( l_from varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', l_to int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', KEY l_from (l_from(10)), KEY l_to (l_to) ) TYPE=MyISAM; 13) Similar to the question about the orphanedlinks table, why is l_from a string, while l_to is an integer? CREATE TABLE old ( old_id int(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, old_namespace tinyint(2) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', old_title varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', old_text mediumtext NOT NULL, old_comment tinyblob NOT NULL, old_user int(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', old_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', old_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', old_minor_edit tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', old_flags tinyblob NOT NULL, UNIQUE KEY old_id (old_id), KEY old_title (old_title(20)), KEY old_timestamp (old_timestamp) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 14) What is table "old" used for? Deleted articles? Versions of articles that are no longer "the most current"? CREATE TABLE oldimage ( oi_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', oi_archive_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', oi_size int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', oi_description tinyblob NOT NULL, oi_user int(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', oi_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', oi_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', KEY oi_name (oi_name(10)) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 15) So, history IS stored for each image? Then I recommend the scheme of having a separate table for unique image names, and their corresponding "image id" CREATE TABLE random ( ra_current tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ra_title varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '' ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 16) What is this "random" table for? CREATE TABLE recentchanges ( rc_timestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', rc_cur_time varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '', rc_user int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_user_text varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', rc_namespace tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_title varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', rc_comment varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', rc_minor tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_new tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_cur_id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_this_oldid int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', rc_last_oldid int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0' ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 17) Could the recent changes table be replaced with an appropriately defined "view"? Or are views something MySQL doesn't do very well? CREATE TABLE site_stats ( ss_row_id int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', ss_total_views bigint(20) unsigned default '0', ss_total_edits bigint(20) unsigned default '0', ss_good_articles bigint(20) unsigned default '0', UNIQUE KEY ss_row_id (ss_row_id) ) TYPE=MyISAM; 18) What is ss_row_id and ss_good_articles? How does this table work? Does it contain stats for each article? Shouldn't that go in the table that already contains the info for an article? That would lessen the number of SQL updates, collapsing two UPDATE statements into one. CREATE TABLE user ( user_id int(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, user_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default '', user_rights tinyblob NOT NULL, user_password tinyblob NOT NULL, user_newpassword tinyblob NOT NULL, user_email tinytext NOT NULL, user_options blob NOT NULL, user_watch mediumblob NOT NULL, user_newtalk tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '1', UNIQUE KEY user_id (user_id), KEY user_name (user_name(10)) ) TYPE=MyISAM PACK_KEYS=1; 19) Does user_rights correspond to ar_flags? 20) What is "newpassword" for? 21) Are all the "options" really necessary? 22) It might be the SQL way to make a "watchlist" table, where each row contains a user id, and an article id. Or maybe this would be useless in a database that doesn't have subqueries. 23) What is the user_newtalk field? Cheers! Jonathan -- Geek House Productions, Ltd. Providing Unix & Internet Contracting and Consulting, QA Testing, Technical Documentation, Systems Design & Implementation, General Programming, E-commerce, Web & Mail Services since 1998 Phone: 604-435-1205 Email: djw(a)reactor-core.org Webpage: http://reactor-core.org Address: 2459 E 41st Ave, Vancouver, BC V5R2W2