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Overview
Database websites are certainly popular and the reason is you can store a lot of information on them. This information can also be easily found all in one place, by typing in a few variables. For instance, visitors to a database website like Autotrader can easily find just the right car by typing in their state and city, and choosing the type of car they are interested in. To build these database websites you need to know one of several programming languages like MySQL and be familiar with ASP.
Programming Languages
Database websites can be built using one of several programming languages, including MySQl, which is a language used to manage and build a database that interacts with a website. Other languages used with MySQl include PHP and CGI. PHP is a faster, more powerful language that has become more popular over CGI in the last decade. Speed and flexibility are two reasons it is the preferred database language.
Significance
A database website has the ability to store and handle a lot of information. It can also present the information in a flexible way to visitors. A page can be "built" by the user instantly from the large amounts of stored information in the database, which eliminates hours and hours of hand coding the information in static HTML pages.
Function
A database website works like a restaurant. A customer (the user) requests a certain item like a steak medium rare with mashed potatoes and no gravy. The waiter, the website, takes the order and relays it to the kitchen (run by MySQL) via the web interface. The database (the cook) then interprets the order and prepares the dish. The waiter (the website and ASP program) then delivers that dish back to the customer.
How it is Built
Building a database website requires a lot of programming experience. The programmer must know MySQL to manage and set up the database. With MySQL the programmer can determine which fields represent which variables. For instance, he can make one field for a car's make, another for the model, another for price and so on.
Plugging Into the Web
In order for the database to work on a web page the programmer must code the HTML pages to execute functions. These functions tell the database which fields are to be retrieved and displayed and which actions are to be performed. But before any of this happens there needs to be a way for the database and web to interact. The program that manages this interaction is usually ASP. So, a programmer must also know how to install ASP plug-ins on the web server where the website is hosted.
Time Considerations
Some database websites take many man hours to build, anywhere from two weeks to a month or more for a simple database site. Experienced programmers can build them faster, and many use pre-coded snippets to build a database. Other companies offer pre-built databases that can be modified to a user's specific needs. This saves time, but it still will take many hours to install and set up the database on the web server.
