[thelist] DB / File served performance comparisons...

Ola.


I was hoping anyone who might have a bit of insight into this area would
enlighten me as to the difference in performance between serving content
from a database and serving content via the typical "static" HTML page.

I ask because a site that I'm working on currently is updated on a semi -
regular basis ; usually ( at best ) six or seven times a day.  I was
wondering how best to improve performance on the site, and the thought
occurred to me that instead of having the main page ( which displayed news
updates, etc. ) actually query the database and display the results in ( for
lack of a better term ) real time, I would instead process the database
changes when they are made and output a static HTML file which I would then
serve to the users.

Would this be beneficial? Or is it merely just being anal retentive in
regards to performance?

( The server is using PHP 4.0 and MySQL as a backend, currently. )

Thanks,

CZ


<tip type="books, dhtml, dom, css, javascript, ecmascript">

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference
by Danny Goodman
ISBN: 1-56592-494-0

Having just picked this book up recently, I would strongly recommend it to
anyone seeking an "all in one" reference to clientside design and
interactivity - it's over 1000 pages long, featuring such topics as the
event model for Javascript to the lists of DOM elements ( and which browsers
support them ).

Though definitely not a good book to learn with ( as is the norm for many
O'Reilly books ), it's value as a reference definitely exceeds the cost of
the book.

</tip>