Databases: What & When to use them.

[Shalazar]

How do you know what information on a website should be placed in a database, and when it should just remain static and hard-coded into the page?

I mean, while it would be an excellent idea to database references to photos in a gallery, with information on size, source, etc.

But do you go ahead and put your articles in there too?[nbsp][nbsp]Or archived news? And so on?

Basically, the question remains, what kind of information is appropriate for database work, and what isn't appropriate?

[Justin]

This is something you will have to weigh out yourself - if you are willing to take the time to learn and create software to manage the database, and you think it will save time in the long run, by all means use it. But if it would be easier (and less time consuming) to use static HTML, then it might be better to stick with it.

On my sites, I make the decision for each area based on many factors - since I write all of my own software, I know what is involved. My articles for example are static HTML (in PHP pages but that's a different story). My news items are database driven (so others can add them in as well).

It just depends on what you think will be best in the long run...

Hope this helps.

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support

[Shalazar]

Thanks Justin, I was on a similar line of thinking. And that did help.

I was looking at the idea of putting the news and things in a database, that way important newstopics and links could be placed on any page at any given time, as well as be written to archive itself every 30 days or so.

Pictures, descriptions, sizes, and weights could also be put in there as well, to allow for a searchable picture database (which would be awesome since a majority of my traffic accesses pictures).

But more static things, like articles or a biography, etc. could just remain coded in HTML, but placed in an overall body of a PHP page (as to include headers, footers, and dynamic side bars with updated news, pictures, etc.)

[Justin]

I think you're catching on quite well :)[nbsp][nbsp]Another point to consider for each type of item is whether or not you plan to make it searchable. News items, for example - you might want to make them searchable by date, keywords, author, and subject - using a database makes this process a lot easier.

You have the concept down now, so you should do well in figuring out the best approach for your specific purposes :)

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support