PHP Tree Traversal For Sub Forums Within Sub Forums - php

Question

I have been developing my own forum for about a week now and I am almost done with all of the code, however, I am stuck on one single issue that I have not been able to figure out.
Well, simply said I have sub forums that can be within any amount of other sub forums.
How would I create a path dynamically to any of those sub forums on the spot with PHP.
After the path is created I would use it within href's and other things.
I am guessing I would somehow need to traverse the database based on a ID column and another column that would link one sub forum to another sub forum.
Let's assume that my database table looks like this:
ID | Name | Link |
---+-------------+-------
1 | Forum-One | Top |
2 | Forum-Two | 1 |
3 | Forum-Three | 2 |
4 | Forum-Four | 2 |
5 | Forum-Five | 3 |
6 | Forum-Six | 3 |
How would I go about doing this - or is there something else that must be done instead?
I hope I was clear enough for everyone to understand.
EDIT:
include("inc/config.php");
function generateBreadcrumb($startingID){
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM temp_table WHERE ID='$startingID'");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$db_id=$row['ID'];
$db_name=$row['Name'];
}
if($db_id!='Top'){
return generateBreadCrumb($db_id);
} else {
return $db_name;
}
}
$startID='6';
echo generateBreadcrumb($startID);

Answer 1

First you need a terminating condition. So set your top level Forum[link] to null, or 'top', or something. Then its simply a matter of using a recursive function put your bread-crumb together.
So lets assume you wanted to go to display the breadcrumb to Forum-One:Forum-Three:Forum-Six , better known as Forum-Six.
Example code:
<?php
$yourForumId = 6; // replace this dynamically with your forum;
$breadcrumb = generateBreadcrumb($yourForum);
function generateBreadcrumb($startingForumId){
$sql= "SELECT Name ,link FROM Forums WHERE ID = ".$startingForumId;
//run your $sql however you do to get results
//assuming you get associative arrays back
if($res['link'] != 'top'){
return generateBreadCrumb($res['link']).":".$res['Name'];
} else {
return $res['Name'];
}
}
echo $breadcrumb;
?>
It's recursion, which if you're new to it may seem complicated, but I hope that helps!
EDIT: here's your code with the needed edit...
include("inc/config.php");
function generateBreadcrumb($startingID){
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM temp_table WHERE ID='$startingID'");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$db_id=$row['link'];
$db_name=$row['Name'];
if($db_id!='Top'){
return generateBreadCrumb($db_id).":".$db_name;
} else {
return $db_name;
}
}
$startID='6';
echo generateBreadcrumb($startID);