PHP/MYSQL Newsletter read/unread system

Question

i have a small problem.

1. Table (user_table)

   id | username | name | password

2. Table (newsletter)

   id | date

3. Table (newsletter_posts) <-- This table isn't very important for my problem.

The user_table is flexible, that means, sometimes i create new users, sometimes i delete users.

The newsletter table is also flexible.

This month

1 | 12345678

Next month

2 | 23456789

and so on...

But how can i create a read/unread table for all newsletter and all users. I have around 100 users and 12 newsletter per year.

Greetings

Dennis

Answer 1

You create a table that relates the newsletter table to the user table.

newsletter_user
----------------
id
user_id
newsletter_id
created_date

Existence of a row should occur (insert) when a user reads a newsletter. If there is no row, the user hasn't read the newsletter. Create a unique index on user_id,newsletter_id.

Answer 2

Just create a mapping table. You can name it newsletter_users_log. It can have columns like:

1. id -> BIGINT auto increment
2. newsletter_id -> foreign key to newsletter table
3. user_id -> foreign key to users table
4. date_sent -> DateTime

Answer 3

You should make a table that has

user id | newsletter id | status

Then you can query a newsletter to see who has read it or a user to see what newsletters they have read

If you want you can also add in some date fields, say for date read if you want to track that data.