Storing Data for Use in Websites

There are many ways to store data for use on the Internet. Deciding which method is best depends on several factors. How will the data be used? How will the data be displayed? How many people will be using the data? How will the data be imported or exported? How much data will be stored? Is this compatible with your web host server? There are many questions with many answers.

If you choose to use a database to store data, it must be compatible with your web host server. If you have a Unix/Linux or another non-Windows server, then you cannot host a Microsoft Access database or another Windows database. If you have a Windows server, you cannot host a non-Windows database.

But you can host the database elsewhere or import the data from one database to another. If you have a Microsoft Access database on your Windows desktop at home and wish to use the data on your non-Windows web host server, you can import the data to an SQL database that is compatible with web server.

You can also export the data into text files and eliminate conventional databases. There are many scripts that can store and retrieve data stored in text files if you are using small amounts of data. This is useful for small applications that store usernames and passwords, email addresses for opt-in email or other applications.

If you have a Microsoft Access database and a Windows web server, you may still need to export your database to another database such as MySQL (SQL for Windows) or Oracle (for Windows servers). Use FoxPro to transfer the data to a more robust database that can handle multiple requests and larger quantities of data.

Usine XML and XSL allows you to store data in a structured format for easy use. You can specify your own XML tags and use XSL to define the display of the data in a web page. You can use a parser to create HTML pages to upload to your web server. This is the easiest, because it is compatible with everything and there is no data limit.

Before making any decisions, decide what you plan to do with this data in 5 to 10 years. Do you plan to add to it, use it for different applications, share it with anyone? How much will this cost to maintain the data storage, retrieval, updates and web hosting? Your decision may be based on cost, need, use or knowledge. Explore your options and make an informed decision.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, September 25, 2003

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