[thelist] Relational DB Help

David Kutcher david_kutcher at hotmail.com
Sat Feb 23 14:31:01 CST 2002


Nick-

While I agree with you on separating content from the interface, and storing
information xml-like in the database and three-tier architectures, for sites
based on publishing large amounts of content, sometimes it does make sense
to store the "article" as a separate text file for various reasons:

1. less strain on the database to do queries on large amounts of data
2. ability to use specialized tools to index and query content

Also, lets say we're using MySQL and not a super-scalable, massively
relational database like Oracle with great indexing functionality... MySQL
would choke.

What does he lose by putting links into the database instead of the
information?  Well, he can't use a database query to find search results.
And his information is in two places.  And there's a point of failure if his
database gets corrupted and his links to his content are wiped.

What does he gain?  The ability to use specialized tools for searching, a
less bloated database, and his page creation won't be bogged down by someone
running a query for "the" in a potentially huge database because they would
be separate process/applications.

Just thoughts... I might seem to be advocating text files... but normally I
wouldn't (it's not a good practice)... but it might make sense here unless
he's using a big relational database on a real server system.

David
www.confluentforms.com



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