DatabaseDriven Web Sites

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Database-Driven Web Sites

• Presented by Xueying Bai
• Nov. 23 2004

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Overview

• 1. Introduction
• 2. When and why to build a database-driven Web
  site?
• 3. Choosing a database
• 4. Choosing a scripting language
• 5. Why information architects should be
  concerned?
• 6. Conclusion
• 7. References

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Static Web pages vs. dynamic Web pages

• Static Web pages
• Data is stored in .html files
• Won't change until someone changes their source
  codes
• Dynamic Web pages
• Web pages that respond to users' requests and
  gather information from them. Oftentimes, they
  have built-in links to a database, from which
  they extract data based on input from the users
• Created in real time

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What is data and database?

• Data a general term meaning the facts, numbers,
  letters, and symbols processed by a computer or
  communications system to produce information. In
  a computer system these items are stored in
  files.
• Database A collection of related files is a
  database

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What is a database-driven Web site?

• Definition A database-driven Web site is a Web
  site that uses a database to gather, display, or
  manipulate information
• Example
• News sites CNN.com and MSNBC.com
• E-commerce companies Amazon.com, which is a Web
  interface of a big-sized database system
  containing customer and transactional
  information.

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When do we need a database-driven web site?

• We would need a database-driven Web site if our
  information changes very often, just like in a
  banking site
• Most organizations have a great deal of
  information in databases and could benefit if
  this information is made available online
• When the content on a site reaches critical mass,
  it's time to stop managing it as resources
  embedded in static HTML" and start to create a
  database-driven Web site

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Why do we need database-driven Web sites? (I)

• Web pages of database-driven Web sites are
  created dynamically (in real time) thus giving a
  Web site visitor an up-to-date view of
  information stored in the database.
• Users can do their own maintenance via a set of
  Web-based data entry forms
• Such as we can change our address, credit card
  information of our Amazon account by ourselves
• The information that the Web site visitor sees on
  a dynamic Web page can be quickly customized
• For example, the sort order of the items can be
  changed or certain database fields can be shown
  or hidden

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Why do we need database-driven Web sites? (II)

• The look feel of the database-driven pages can
  be easily changed vs. having to redo dozens if
  not hundreds or thousands of static Web pages in
  the event that a site's design needs to be
  modified
• Several different views of the database
  information can be presented in the same time
• For example, the items could be presented in
  alphabetical order by name but then could also be
  sorted and presented by cost
• The site visitor can do a search on the items in
  the database
• It is easy for Web masters to maintain the Web
  sites

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3. Choosing a database

• Commercial databases Oracle, SQL Server
• Cost expensive
• Hardware requirements high
• Target customers with more specific needs than
  open source databases (enterprise edition and
  standard edition)
• Have an impressive array of advanced features
• Open source databases MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Cost cheap
• Hardware requirements low
• Be lack of some advanced features

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Oracle

• Oracle databases are used by the big-sized
  businesses which stored data gt 100GB
• Strengths
• full of features
• fast
• reliable
• Weaknesses
• Very expensive
• High hardware requirement

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SQL Server

• SQL Server caters to small and mid-sized
  businesses
• Strengths
• Overtakes Oracle as the No. 1 DBMS on Windows
• Cheaper than Oracle
• Weaknesses
• SQL Server can't scale.
• SQL Server is not very secure.
• Prices comparison between Oracle and SQL Server

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MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

• MySQL is the most popular open source database
  vs. PostgreSQL is the most advanced open source
  database
• MySQL is faster than PostgreSQL
• MySQL is used more often than PostgreSQL
• MySQl has stronger community and resource
  support than PostgreSQL
• MySQL lacks some advanced features that
  PostgreSQL has.

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Choosing a Scripting language

• Open-source scripting languages
• PHP
• JSP
• Perl
• Proprietary scripting languages
• ASP.NET
• Cold Fusion

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PHP

• Strengths
• Cost PHP is free.
• Portability can be compiled for any operating
  system
• Ease of Maintenance
• Maturity mature enough to be used in any
  production environment
• Weaknesses
• Be lack of exceptions, event-based error-handling
  instances
• Its function names are case insensitive

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JSP (Java Server Pages)

• Strengths
• Platform independent write once, run anywhere
• Developers can extend the JSP language
• Easily write and maintain pages
• Weakness
• One significant disadvantage of JSP documents is
  that no XML-compliant version of JSP comments
  exists. A JSP document developer can use
  client-side (HTML-/XML-style) comments or embed
  Java comments.

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Perl

• Strengths
• There is a big developer community and a great
  deal of support for Perl
• Perl is good for quick, single Web sites
• Weakness
• Some of the syntax is quite frightening

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ASP.NET

• ASP.NET is the product of Microsoft
• Strengths
• Developers can choose many programming languages
  (ASP.NET works with scripted languages such as
  VBScript, JScript, Perlscript, and Python, as
  well as compiled languages such as VB, C, C,
  Cobol, Smalltalk, and Lisp)
• Developers can use many development environments
  (such as WebMatrix, a community-supported tool,
  Visual Studio .NET, or various Borland tools such
  as Delphi and C Builder) to create
• ASP.NET pages
• Weakness
• It needs more memory usage and more execution
  time.

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Cold Fusion

• Cold Fusion is the product of Macromedia
• Strengths
• A very nice development environment called
  Macromedia ColdFusion MX 6.1
• Fewer lines of code than ASP, PHP, and JSP
• Easy to learn and write
• Weakness
• Harder to maintain

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Why information architects should be concerned?
(1)

• How to show retrieval results from databases
  sorting and ranking
• Sorting helpful to users who want to make a
  decision or take an action
• Example Amazon.com
• Ranking there is a need to understand
  information or learn something
• Example UTNetCAT

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Why information architects should be concerned?
(2)

• Show retrieval results in sets of pages
• Example Google

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Why information architects should be concerned?
(3)

• "Hidden Web problem
• Valuable data is buried alive in isolated
  databases
• Information architects need to work together with
  developers and system integrators to provide
  users with intellectual access to information and
  data, independent of format

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Why information architects should be concerned?
(4)

• "deep Web" search engine
• The information inside Web databases is called
  the "deep Web".
• Information architects of database-driven Web
  sites should provide Web sites' users the "deep
  Web" search engine to easily and quickly access
  data in database (such as search engine of
  Amazon.com, users can use it to search
  information about books, DVDs etc. that is stored
  in the database).

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Why information architects should be concerned?
(5)

• Proper database and scripting language choice
• Increase of data size according to the Web
  site's longtime requirements
• Now 5000 users
• 2 years later 50000 users
• Speed if there are thousands of users per second
  visit your Web site, you cant use ASP.NET
  because it needs more memory usage and more
  execution time

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Conclusion

• The exponential increase of the number of
  database-driven Web sites on the Internet
• Information architects should know
• When and why they need to build database-driven
  Web sites and
• How to build good database-driven Web sites.

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References (1)

• Boulton, C. (2003). Are Open Source Databases
  Following in Linux' Footsteps? Retrieved Oct. 22,
  from http//boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2
  221901
• Building database driven Websites using
  Dreamweaver (n.d.). Retrieved Oct. 22, from
  http//www2.shu.ac.uk/schools/cms/itf/course2.cfm?
  Course_IDbuilding
• Cold Fusion Overview (n.d.). Retrieved Oct. 22,
  from http//telecom.fit.edu/cfdocs/gettingstarted/
  gs030006.htm
• Database-driven Web Sites (n.d.). Retrieved Oct.
  20, from http//www.crendo.com/database-driven-web
  sites.htm
• Database driven websites (n.d.). Retrieved Oct.
  20, 2004, from http//www.summersault.com/services
  /database.html
• Definition of PostgreSQL(n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 15
  2004, from http//www.wordiq.com/definition/Postgr
  eSQLFeatures
• DevGuy(2002). Avoid PHP code leaks - Source
  Guardian. Retrieved Oct. 21, from
  http//www.pchardware.ro/Articles/article.php?id1
  79p2
• Gary, R. (2000). Designing a Database-Driven Web
  Site, or, The Evoluation of the INFOIGUANA.
  Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004, from EBSCOhost database.

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References (2)

• Gesker, D. (2001) Alternatives for Dynamic Web
  Development Projects. Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004,
  from ACM database.
• Ghanem, T. Aref, W. (2004). Databases Deepen
  the Web. Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004, from IEEE
  Xplore database.
• Hull, S (n.d.). PHP and ASP.NET Go Head-to-Head.
  Retrieved Oct. 22, from http//www.oracle.com/tech
  nology/pub/articles/hull_asp.html
• Ian Gilfillan (2003). PostgreSQL vs MySQL Which
  is better? Retrieved Nov. 13, from
  http//www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/arti
  cle.php/3288951
• JavaServer Pages Overview (n.d.). Retrieved Oct.
  22, from http//java.sun.com/products/jsp/overview
  .html
• Lowe S. (2002). Selecting a database Open source
  or commercial? Retrieved Nov. 13, from
  http//techrepublic.com.com/5100-6265_11-1054291-2
  .html
• Macromedia ColdFusion MX 6.1(n.d.). Retrieved
  Nov. 13, from http//www.macromedia.com/software/c
  oldfusion/
• Rosenfeld, L. Morville, P. (2002). Information
  Architecture for the World Wide Web (2nd ed.).
  Sebastopol, CA O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.

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• Questions?
• Thank you!