Creating a messenger that can send to multiple users

posted 10 years ago

Hi people of laravel.io,

I would like a messaging system on the app I am developing but I am very new to the Laravel framework and MVC of any form ....

Here is the part of migration that I am building at the moment for "call_logs".

Basically the idea of "call logs" as you can imagine is a call logging part of the program, the user that takes the call will take information and then send that info to the appropriate people.

	Schema::table('call_logs', function(Blueprint $table)
	{
		$table->integer('id')->primary();

		$table->integer('taken_by')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('taken_by')->references('id')->on('users');

		$table->integer('to')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('to')->references('id')->on('users');

		$table->string('title');
		$table->string('subject');
		$table->text('content', 2000);
		
		
		$table->softDeletes();
		$table->timestamps();
	});

So I need 'to' to be some sort of array of users to send to, how is this achieved, also I don't want to have to come across the n+1 issue with saving the same message for multiple users.....how do I get around this.

Last updated 3 years ago.

iboinas

replied 10 years ago

Hello,

I see different approaches.

1-JSON object as the var kept in the schema you show. It's the best way, IMHO, to save an array in a database column.

2-Pivot table, meaning there would be table "call_log_to_recepients" table. two columns, call_log_id and to_user_id. both columns would make a composite key on the schema. (to garantee uniqueness) means you would have something like:

# call_log_id # to_user_id #
# 1               #     4
# 1               #     5
# 2               #     4

1st log means went to user 4 and 5 2nd log went to user 4 .... i guess you can take it from here!

This way you can hit the database much easier than with the json object! ;)

Cheers

Last updated 10 years ago.

alexwinter

replied 10 years ago

I have gave it more thought and I have come up with a new approach, why couldn't I just have two tables:

call_logs:

id
to
from
message_id(call_log_messages->id)
taken_by

call_log_messages

id
call_log_id (call_logs->id)
message_content

Then say a user takes a call, writes out a message, sends it to bill, mark, bob, the code will save the "message" 3 times with the same "message_id" but with different "to" each time then the message content gets saved in "call_log_messages".

Then if the user deletes there message, all they are really doing is removing their row from "call_logs"

If this will work, is this "supported" with frameworks like Laravel how would I do this in Laravel, or where would I go to find out.

Last updated 10 years ago.

alexwinter

replied 10 years ago

So now my schema looks like:

	Schema::table('messages', function(Blueprint $table)
	{
		$table->integer('id')->primary();

		$table->integer('taken_by')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('taken_by')->references('id')->on('users');

		$table->integer('to')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('to')->references('id')->on('users');

		$table->integer('content_id')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('content_id')->references('id')->on('message_contents');

		$table->string('title');
		$table->string('subject');
		
		$table->softDeletes();
		$table->timestamps();
	});
	Schema::table('message_contents', function(Blueprint $table)
	{
		$table->integer('id')->primary();

		$table->text('content', 2000);
	});

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