Re: New to DB Development

From: Jeff Cochran (jcochran.nospam_at_naplesgov.com)
Date: 03/23/04 

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 12:38:40 GMT

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 17:51:07 -0600, "Jim" <jim@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I'm sorry but I need you to comment further on, "A batch file with a COPY
>command and the use of the Windows scheduling service will accomplish
>that task in a few minutes, with little or no overhead and no learning
>curve to speak of."
>
>I don't understand what you are talking about here. My knowledge of the
>Windows OS is very weak.

If all you want is for a page or set of pages to change on a regular
schedule, then a scripted and scheduled copy command is the way to go.
For example, if you wnated one page displayed in the AM and another in
the PM, you have two options. The first is a page with both AM and PM
data in it, and an IF/THEN statement based on time. Something like
(Pseudocode, won't actually run):

IF Time IS AM THEN
  Response.Write "Good Morning"
END IF

IF Time is PM THEN
  Response.Write "Good Afternoon"
END IF

The other method is two pages:

Page 1)

<p>Good Morning</p>

Page 2)

<p>Good Evening</p>

And a task scheduled at Noon that does:

COPY page1.htm index.htm

And another at Midnight:

COPY page2.htm index.htm

This can be done a number of ways, but the easiest is a bacth file
(set of commands for the system to follow) that is scheduled using the
Windows Task Scheduler. See:

Batch Files:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/BatBasic.html

Task Scheduler:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/BatBasic.html

Obviously you'd do a lot more complicated page, but the process is the
same.

The real issue is database versus no database. For a simple scheduled
change of static data, a database is inefficient and more complicated.
But what if instead of just changing the page based upon morning or
afternoon, you wanted to update the page everytime one of your realty
agents listed a house for sale. Plus, you only wanted to list the
houses that the particular viewer would be interested in, based on a
profile that user has created. Swapping files is impossible since you
could have a dozen users looking for the same page at the same time
but with different properties listed. IF/THEN statements could
actually handle it, but you'd need a team of programmers writing these
statements every time a new property was listed or a user changed
their profile. Instead, the properties go into a database, the user
profiles go into a database, and each time you display the page you
retrieve only the properties that meet the user's profile and display
them.

That's what a dynamic web site really is, not one that occasionally
changes. Even if "occasionally" means every hour.

Jeff

>"Jeff Cochran" <jcochran.nospam@naplesgov.com> wrote in message
>news:405f0d46.88039974@msnews.microsoft.com...
>> On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:56:26 -0600, "Jim" <jim@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I am new to developing Webs that contain databases and want to get off to
>> >the right start. I am hoping someone will take some of their valuable
>time
>> >to answer.
>> >
>> >How much more difficult is it to "start" with SQL Server than Access?
>>
>> For web use you won't be dealing with the Access interface, so the
>> differences become much smaller. If your host supports it, MS SQL is
>> a great start. But a caveat, web design with a database isn't
>> database design, and you'll need to master database design to do the
>> web interface efficiently.
>>
>> >None of the Webs I design, at least until now, need any transactional
>> >processing. A few sites do get over 50,000 hits a month and I worry that
>any
>> >DB I add to a site might bog it down.
>>
>> With Access you'd probably be right. MS SQL isn't really an issue
>> with that traffic level, your bandwidth will likely be the bottleneck.
>> Provided you design the database and coce efficiently of course.
>>
>> >My primary reason for adding a DB is
>> >to start a scheduling process for some of the sites to bring in and out
>> >various elements (text, photos color changes) at predetermined times.
>>
>> That's a lame reason. No really, it is. A batch file with a COPY
>> command and the use of the Windows scheduling service will accomplish
>> that task in a few minutes, with little or no overhead and no learning
>> curve to speak of.
>>
>> If your site were truly dynamic, serving data appropriate to the time
>> and user on a continuous basis, then a database is needed.
>>
>> Jeff
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: New to DB Development
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