Database Driven Website Design

[Guest]

A have a Frontpage website where I have mantained the links to affiliates
manaully but now want to drive the pages by an Access database and would like
comments as to whether my design is a good way to go.

I was going to download the product feeds, from the affilaites, into one
master table and then write queries to make a number of different tables, one
for each page of my website(ie, one for photography). My webpage would
display the results of this table in the centre but I also wanted to add a
menu of categories, on the left, which would also be linked to the
photography table.

Over all this I will have a search field to display the results draw from
the master table.

Anyone like to comment on this design (good or bad).

 

[Guest]

Access is not a good database to drive a website.
-Dorian

 

[Guest]

Dorian,

Not quite what I expected. Can you tell me why you say this and let me know
what I should be using.

 

[Guest]

As a website designer myself who has used ColdFusion to connect Access
databases to websites, I can answer that question. It really depends on how
much traffic you expect your website to receive. If you don't expect much
traffic, then Access will work fine. But if you expect (or hope for) lots of
traffic, then you need to use something like MySQL instead. Access doesn't
handle high numbers of simultaneous data requests very well. Hence, it's not
suited for websites that may be getting lots of visitors.

I think with Access 2003, you can create your database and then upsize it to
MySQL.

GwenH
Master MOS
CIW Certified
CWP Certified

 

[TC]

Just to avoid onfusion, be aware that Access is not the database
engine. Access is just the forms, reports, macros, modules, and all the
code that holds them together. The actual database engine is a
different product called MS Jet. Jet & Access are so closely
integrated, that people often do not know about Jet. But if you were
using "Access" for a web-based database, you wouldn't be using Access
at all - you'd be using MS Jet.

I was amazed, some time ago, to find that some people /do/ use Jet as a
web-based database. It was in here, you'd find it if yo looked through
all the comments to the early posts: htp://blogs.msdn.com/access
But I agree with the other respondent, there is /no way/ Jet would
handle a ite with many simultaneous users.

HTH,
TC

 

[Tim Ferguson]

But I agree with the other respondent, there is /no way/ Jet would
handle a ite with many simultaneous users.

Bear in mind, of course, that a web server is _one_ user.

Tim F

 

[TC]

Ok, gotcha. So what happens if several users hit the server
simultaneously? Does the server just queue them up, & process them one
by one? (Not disagreeing - just asking. I had no idea until recently
that anyone ever used Jet as a web back-end db!)

TIA,
TC

 

[Tim Ferguson]

Ok, gotcha. So what happens if several users hit the server
simultaneously? Does the server just queue them up, & process them one
by one?

Well, yes: that applies to the whole "get request/ run db query/ create
html page/ send it out to client/ wait for next request" cycle. This is on
the edge of my understanding (I'm just teaching myself php+MySQL at the
moment) but it's one of the reasons that MS keep changing the throttling
mechanism for MSDE and SQL Server Express, so that it can recognise when
it's being used as a web engine.

I can't think of any reason not to use a Jet/MDB back end for a web site as
long as its limitations are taken into account in terms of robustness and
file corruption, total datbase size, etc. If you trust your business
finances and customer details to an mdb then I don't see why your web pages
would be any different. The biggest drawback, of course, would be having to
use a IIS and ASP web server with the obvious security concerns, but
languages like PERL and PHP will talk to jet databases through Apache too.

All the best


Tim F

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

I can't think of any reason not to use a Jet/MDB back end for a web site
as
long as its limitations are taken into account in terms of robustness and
file corruption, total datbase size, etc. If you trust your business
finances and customer details to an mdb then I don't see why your web
pages
would be any different.

IIRC, MichKa's mentioned that his site at http://www.trigeminal.com is based
on a Jet database.