As I noticed, not everyone understands and knows why the site needs a database, and in general whether he needs it? The question is interesting enough because not all sites need it, and some without it at all how can not cope. In this article I would like to analyze in detail the issue related to the database, so that every beginner webmaster was able to clearly understand what for…
I would like to share my personal experience, I began to use php for additional functions. But time passed and the amount of material began to grow and thus the number of web pages in the root of the site with html resolution also grew inexorably, which in turn began to cause great inconvenience. Namely, I was not satisfied with a huge number of files, which in the long term will only increase and increase, causing more and more inconvenience. But this is not the only inconvenience, plus a real problem of flexibility of the site, if I made any changes in code or design, I had to redo a bunch of pages, and it was becoming more and more unacceptable …
And then I wondered how to solve this problem, and the only option was to create a database, which is actually what I did, and completely changing the structure of the site. Of course, I had to work hard, but not in vain, now I have no such problems and my site can grow and still remain flexible and easy to use. To switch to such a variant required some knowledge in php and MySql, but it is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. Now the root of my site is not hundreds of pages, but literally 43 and with the addition of new material this figure is not growing.
What is a database?
In fact, this is a set of tables, which you bring the content of your site, and there you can bring not only the text, but also any code. In turn, using the php code and sql queries, you can extract the information from there and structure it as you want.
So what is the beauty of creating a database for the site?
I will try to answer this question a few basic factors that I certainly enjoy. Database for the site, of course, qualitatively structures your information, makes it more organized. The site becomes more flexible and due to the fact that you can extract the content as you want you can structure it in different ways, displaying it either in separate blocks. It is convenient to form a list of your materials, setting for example the usual selection, displaying the name of the date and the link, as for example on my site made articles, lessons, notes, etc. Just using the database greatly simplifies the organization of the search site. You can easily organize registration and authorization of users on the site. In general, a lot of advantages, which in the framework of this article, I will not enumerate.
I would like to note that all modern CMS using databases, and this is considered quite obligatory, because it is already kind of standard.
But all the same, no matter how praise the database, they are not always so necessary. For example, if you have a business card site, which consists of a few pages and you do not plan, its unreal growth, then what sense you have in these complexities. You just curdle good design and make quality layout html css and all. He also will please you and without unnecessary problems.
If you summarize all of the above, then I can say with confidence that the database is needed for serious sites that want to have the most sophisticated functionality, planning a constant development and updating. Well, if you do not need it all can easily do without them.
