Database Design for storing Chat Messages between people

Question

I am trying to build a messaging/chat system. which can store conversation between two people in a chronological order. Also if User A deletes the conversation User B still shou

Answer 1

There will be two tables. nodes node_user

In nodes table,

• node_id
• title
• message
• timestamp

In node_user table,

• node_user_id(PK)
• node_id
• parent_node_id(for threaded)
• from_id
• to_id
• timestamp
• read

When user A send a message to user B, firstly store the message in nodes table. And then, add two records in node_user table. When user A delete the message, only delete the first record in node_user table. When user B delete the message, you can delete records from both nodes and node_user table.

Threaded Message,

• Use parent_node_id