Database-Driven Web
Sites
Presented by Xueying Bai
Nov. 23 2004
Overview
 1. Introduction
 2. When and why to build a database-driven
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
Web site?
3. Choosing a database
4. Choosing a scripting language
5. Why information architects should be
concerned?
6. Conclusion
7. References
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
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
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.
When do we need a databasedriven 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
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 Webbased 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
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
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
Oracle
 Oracle databases are used by the big-sized
businesses which stored data >= 100GB
 Strengths
 full of features
 fast
 reliable
 Weaknesses
 Very expensive
 High hardware requirement
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
Number of
CPUs
Oracle 10g
Enterprise Edit
ion
SQL Server
2000
Enterprise
Edition
1
$40,000 US
$19,999 US
2
$80,000 US
$39,998 US
4
$160,000 US
$79,996 US
8
$320,000 US
$159,992 US
16
$640,000 US
$319,984 US
32
$1,280,000 US $639,968 US
MySQL vs. PostgreSQL
 MySQL is the most popular open source
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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.
Choosing a Scripting language
 Open-source scripting languages
 PHP
 JSP
 Perl
 Proprietary scripting languages
 ASP.NET
 Cold Fusion
PHP
 Strengths
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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
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.
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
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.
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
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
Why information architects should
be concerned? (2)
 Show retrieval results in sets of pages
 Example: Google
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
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).
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 can’t use
ASP.NET because it needs more memory
usage and more execution time
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 databasedriven Web sites and
 How to build good database-driven Web sites.
References (1)
 Boulton, C. (2003). Are Open Source Databases Following in Linux'
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Footsteps? Retrieved Oct. 22, from
http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2221901
Building database driven Websites using Dreamweaver (n.d.). Retrieved
Oct. 22, from
http://www2.shu.ac.uk/schools/cms/itf/course2.cfm?Course_ID=building
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-websites.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/PostgreSQL#Features
DevGuy(2002). Avoid PHP code leaks - Source Guardian. Retrieved Oct. 21,
from http://www.pchardware.ro/Articles/article.php?id=179&p=2
Gary, R. (2000). Designing a Database-Driven Web Site, or, The Evoluation
of the INFOIGUANA. Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004, from EBSCOhost database.
References (2)
 Gesker, D. (2001) Alternatives for Dynamic Web Development Projects.
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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/technology/pub/articles/hull_asp.html
Ian Gilfillan (2003). PostgreSQL vs MySQL: Which is better? Retrieved Nov.
13, from
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.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_111054291-2.html
Macromedia ColdFusion MX 6.1(n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 13, from
http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. (2002). Information Architecture for the World
Wide Web (2nd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.
Questions?
Thank you!