[thelist] Help with Database

[Peter Brunone (EasyListBox.com)]

Carolyn's right on target.  Depending on your connection usage, MSDE or SQL Express (not quite out yet, IIRC) might be viable options for the "really big" as well.

 From: "Carolyn Jewel" <Carolyn.Jewel at LEGACYNET.COM>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 12:11 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: RE: [thelist] Help with Database 

*****

The site will initially offer a few hundred titles and will eventually
expand to over a thousand. Each title will have to be searchable by
numerous variables: Title, Genre, Actors, Director, Year, etc.

I want to make sure that the database will be flexible enough that if
the site gets really big that we won't have to modify the DB much.

I have had some experience with sites that are semi dynamic, running off
a database that was just huge text file.

My question is what should I be looking at to create a database for this
project? Can I run a Db from an excel file or a file maker file, or
something else?

*****
My 2 cents on this: 
- a huge text file is not a database.
- excel is not a database and it's not scalable. It's a performance
nightmare AND a data nightmare
- Scalable means *not* Access, *not* Excel, probably not PostGres, and
maybe not MySQL. It means Oracle or SQL Server. You did say "really big"
and if by that you hope for thousands or millions of hits, then only the
last two will do. For your environment Oracle is probably best. If money
is an issue, then MySQL may be your only affordable option.
- A database that is "flexible enough" means reasonably normalized to
the DBA and unreasonably normalized for the programmer. Anything else
ends up sacrificing data integrity and you will have to listen to some
DBA say "I told you so" when you have problems with bad data.

All this is from the DBA perspective. Others may see things differently.

Carolyn J.