mySQL to build a site

[smallcompany]

Hello,

If we have data in mySQL database, what are the known options for building a site where even file names would be built based on the data from database (keywords for example).

Here is the quoted text of what some folks say about it:

“Data files in in MySQL file formats can be downloaded in a raw MySQL cross compatible file dump. The file will have the required create table statements and all of the insert statements for each marketing lead scripted in the file. If you are familiar with phpMyAdmin, then this will only require a simple 1 click import, and your new MySQL database will be up and running.”

Based on this, does the site have to be PHP or can have HTML output as well?

How about SEO side? Is this way of site building good or bad?

Thanks

[Demaestro]

In my experience it is better to store the location of the file rather then a dump of it.

A dump will result in a fields being bogged down with a ton of data.... it will wear on your site if/when it starts to outgrow your DB. If you were using a high end production DB that costs a ton of money to license then maybe. I just see no advantage to storing it that way.

Another reason I would shy away from doing it would be when you update a file you will have to use SQL update statements which is fine but if you want to alter 100 files then updating the db could become annoying and slow and would have to be done outside peak hours so to not interrupt the speed for your users. Taking this a step further if you update files and wish to keep an archived backup of the older version it just gets messier. Having a directory that holds the files and a directory for archived ones just seems to be less of an administrative nightmare.

My suggestion would be rather then a dump into a field... have a field store the file location as like this..... '/var/usr/html/media/file_name.blah'

There may be some benefits to storing a dump of the file in the DB directly but I am not aware of any. Perhaps someone else here knows of some.

[whoisgregg]

I highly recommend reading through Basics of extracting data from MySQL using PHP [webmasterworld.com], our library thread for folks starting out on building a dynamic, database driven site.

It should lay the foundation for dealing with your database. After that, read Mod_Rewrite Beginning [webmasterworld.com], which deals with how to give your database driven pages user and search engine friendly URLs.

[smallcompany]

Hello to all. Thank you very much. My apology for not replying sooner, there was no notification about your posts.

I will definitely take this into account and read thoroughly.

Thanks again.