Table Design Question?

I have seen more than one tutorial on making a Yahoo type link directory and basic search engine but I cant find anything like the website I'm trying to build.

I just want to display Categories (for site navigation) on every page, then Sub Categories, then listings, and finally Detailed listings. An example site is found here Http://www.daytondepot.com

Check out the progression of links by visiting

Accommodations then Hotels, then the hotel list and the go to Best Western where you will see a Detailed listing called More info. This is what I am trying to accomplish. I made a table layout in MySQL with a lookup table and reference keys in some of the tables. I can make a basic round trip through the categories but sometimes the wrong listings show up under the wrong sub-categories.

I am not sure if it is my Table layout or my queries and PHP progamming? If anyone has a nice database structure for something like this I would be soooo greatful! Most likely looking at the database setup and php programing I have done will be more trouble than just suggesting a good layout but I'm certainly willing to get more information to anyone who wants it.

Thanks

Sean Karns

I would use one table to handle the categories, and use a parent/child type setup. e.g.
Cats Table
catid INT PK
desc VARCHAR
parentid INT

In the table above, parentid references catid.
Then, I'd have a Hotels table (or whatver it is that are the listings)... that table should be simple. The foreign key would be catid.

stumpy,

Thanks for the table layout suggestion. I will see what I can do with it. I think I see where you are going, though I am a newbie at this Thanks alot for the reply to my question.

Sean Karns

PS If I can figure out how to set it all up and it works I will post about it. Thanks

I build most large site using the tree structure setup. All the nav is contained in the one table, as outlined above. Examples:
http://www.ingrealestate.com.au/investment/
http://www.ingrealestate.com.au/development/
http://www.gbcaus.org/
http://www.gbcaus.org/greenstar/

stumpy,

Thanks for the example sites. Those are some very nice websites indeed. I see the structure, it makes sense and I like it very much.

Thanks for the help

Sean Karns

Excellent - no problem