PHP News Feed Database & Design
- by pws5068
I'm designing a News Feed system using PHP/MySQL similar to facebook's.
I have asked a similar question before but now I've changed the design and I'm looking for feedback.
Example News:
  User_A commented on User_B's new album.    
  "Hey man nice pictures!"
  
  User_B added a new Photo to [his/her] profile.
     [show photo thumbnail]
Initially, I implemented this using excessive columns for Obj1:Type1 | Obj2:Type2 | etc..
Now the design is set up using a couple special keywords, and actor/receiver relationships.  My database uses a table of messages joined on a table containing userid,actionid,receiverid,receiverObjectTypeID,
Here's a condensed version of what it will look like once joined:
News_ID | User_ID |                  Message                   |     Timestamp
  2643       A       %a commented on %o's new %r.                  SomeTimestamp
  2644       B     %a added a new %r to [his/her] profile.         SomeTimestamp
%a = the User_ID of the person doing the action
%r = the receiving object 
%o = the owner of the receiving object (for example the owner of the album) (NULL if %r is a user)
Questions:
Is this a smart (efficient/scalable) way to move forward?
How can I show messages like: "User_B    added 4 new photos to his
profile."?