Use these bookmarks
to jump around the tutorial:
[What
types of Databases are There?]
[How
do I Know Which One is Best for Me?]
[How
Do I Connect to a Database?]
[How
Do I Use the Database Once I am Connected?]
In today’s world you
just can’t escape the database. Right now there are literally over a million
databases at work storing all sorts of information from government files to
company employee records to consumer shopping habits.
So, should you use a
database for your website? Why not? Everyone else is. It’s easy to become an
information junky.
Why Use
a Database?
So, what possible use
could you have for a database on your website? After all, you are just creating
a site for yourself, your friends and your family.
As I mentioned earlier,
there are a myriad of uses for databases. I’m sure it is easy to imagine all of
the uses for a database on a commercial web site like an online store. You could
store visitor information for logging in, purchase information, order logs,
bookkeeping information, company reports, pricing structures, account
information and the list goes on.
But what about personal
stuff? Well, imagine this. You started a site for you and your family. You have
a few pages for your family, your parents have a few pages and you just added some pages about
your friends. Now your site just seems to keep growing and you don’t really have
the time to keep up with your own stuff let alone all of the things your family
and friends keep sending you.
For example, you started
a page so that you and your friends can borrow each others DVDs. Your page keeps
track of who has what DVD and who is the original owner of the DVD. Each time a
DVD changes hands someone sends you an email and you have to change the
information on the website.
Another example. Your
parents have 7 grandchildren. They love to keep up with their grandchildren’s’
activities. So, they are constantly sending you each grandchild’s schedule of
events to post. You get sports schedules, school activities and recitals just to
name a few.
You also created a
community page for your visitors. On it you have the names, email addresses and
telephone numbers of your family and friends. The trouble is your friends and
family seem to keep adding their friends and family and you keep getting all of
the emails asking you to add more and more people.
Getting tired just
thinking about it? Can you see how a database could be your friend?
If you could create a
database driven DVD checkout system, calendar of events and community contacts
you could save yourself a ton of time by letting your users do the updating
instead of you through some simple web forms that you create and then use your
database to update your pages automatically.
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top
What
Types of Databases are There?
You wouldn’t believe.
DBMSs (Data Base
Management Systems) come in many different shapes, sizes and flavors, however,
there are two basic categories: Enterprise and Personal.
(In case you are
confused, DBMS refers to the software that handles moving the data in, out and
around your database while the term database refers to the actual body of data
that you are storing.)
Enterprise DBMSs
are designed primarily for use with corporations, governments and any other
function that would require the database to handle large amounts of data coming
in and out. Information Technology folks refer to this as scalability
which simply means how well the database handles multiple simultaneous transactions (the handling of
data). For example, a high scalability would mean that the database can handle
everything from a few transactions an hour to thousands of transactions or more
happening at the same time.
Some examples of
Enterprise DBMSs that you might have heard of would be Microsoft’s SQL
(pronounced sequel) Server, Oracle or IBM’s DB2.
Personal DBMSs
are generally not highly scalable. They are intended to be used as
learning tools or in low demand situations like you may run into while working
on your personal projects. Depending on the DBMS, you might even find good uses for a
personal DBMS in small business. Many Enterprise DBMSs also have personal
versions like Oracle that was mentioned above. Other companies produce separate
products like Microsoft’s Access which are very similar to their Enterprise
product.
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top
How Do I
Know Which One is Best for Me?
Well, first you need to
decide what your immediate needs are. Are you going to use this on a website
that could potentially have hundreds of people accessing information at the same
time? Then you need to estimate your future needs. How much do you think your
website will grow?
So, let’s take our
example website outlined above and do a little database planning.
First, the DVD exchange.
Unless you are planning on running an online DVD exchange business from your
site one day you can certainly expect that no more than one or two people will
be accessing the system at the same time.
Second, your parent’s
calendar of events for the grandkids. For this one it’s pretty obvious that only
your parents will be accessing the calendar to make changes, however, you
must also consider how many people will be viewing the calendar as well. Since
the calendar is dynamically updated with information in the database you must
add viewers into the equation. So, at most, you would probably expect no more
than three or four people accessing the calendar simultaneously.
Third, you have created
your community contact page. Here you can probably expect no more than two
people adding names to the list at the same time and probably no more than five
people viewing the list.
Did you notice the
theme? Basically, the biggest limitation a DBMS will have is its scalability.
For this example we have probably no more than twelve people accessing all
of your database driven pages at the same time. Therefore, a personal DBMS like
Microsoft’s Access will probably fit the bill since it can handle up to around
25 concurrent users. This will also leave plenty of room for future growth.
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top
How Do I Connect to a Database?
What the heck do you
mean connect? Connecting to a database is basically what you would think. It
establishes a connection between your application (in this case one of your web pages)
and the database itself so that commands and data can be passed back and forth.
Depending on what
database you choose, there are a few different ways that you can connect. Most
of your major Enterprise DBMSs allow you to connect using an IP address, a
database name, a valid user name and password.
You can also use a
DSN (Data Source Name) which is something that is set up by you or your
hosting service on your server. You can think of the DSN as a sort of map to
your database.
Although the basic
principles pretty much remain the same, each DBMS handles connectivity
differently. And not only are the DBMSs different but so are the programming
languages that you can choose to use. For example, the code you need to create a
connection in Java is quite different from the code you would use in ASP
(Active Server Pages).
Important note:
Whatever you choose, you will have to make sure that the DBMS and language are available
on or from your server.
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top
How
Do I Use the Database Once I am Connected?
In order to make use of
your database you will have to learn a few different things.
First, you will need to
learn a language like ASP that will allow you to manipulate your pages with the
information you have stored in your database.
Second you will need to
learn some basic SQL (Structured Query Language) commands which are the
commands that allow you to “talk” to the DBMS. This will allow you to add,
delete, update and retrieve the information you need.
Only certain languages
support database connectivity. Probably the most popular language in use on the
web these days is ASP. ASP allows you to create pages that are dynamic and
easily maintained.
Obviously, there is much
more that can be covered when talking about DBMSs and databases. This tutorial
is mainly intended to give you an idea of the many possibilities for using
databases.
Here are some DBMSs and
sites to visit:
- Oracle – The
Oracle website can be viewed here. – A free
trial version of the DBMS is available
here. - Microsoft’s SQL
Server –
Click here for the SQL Server home on Microsoft’s web site. You can download
the free 120-day evaluation version from
here. - Access 2002 – You
can check out this very popular personal/small business DBMS by clicking
here. - DB2 – The DB2
trial version is available
here. – The IBM web site can be seen
here.
