Database Driven Website Design

Today's websites are often developed using dynamic pages driven by databases.A database contains information which is then retrieved and used in the creation of your web pages. Below are the answers to just some of the questions we are often asked in connection with dynamic database driven websites.

What Is A Database Driven Website?

A database-driven website is a website that uses a database to gather, display, or manipulate information. The web pages that are created when a database website design solution is used are actually called "dynamic web pages" as opposed to "static" web pages. The information contained in the database is usually kept up to date by using a website content management system. The content management system can be designed and tailored to your specific requirements.

This is what happens: each time a dynamic web page is about to be sent to the browser, the server automatically builds the new web page for display. The server 'knows' how to build the page by following the instructions provided by the programmer.

What Are Dynamic Web Pages And How Do They Differ From Static Web Pages?

Static web pages always look the same and the content never changes unless you load a new page or you change the page yourself or request your web designer to make changes and upload the new version of the web page to the web server.

Dynamic pages do the opposite, they can change every time they are loaded (without you having to make those changes) and they can even change their content based on what your website visitors do. The dynamic page can be created as a direct result of your website visitor requesting information.

Dynamic pages are created using active information from a database. Instead of creating the usual static html web pages in advance and uploading these to your web space in readiness for your website visitors. The web pages are instantly created when the software "interrogates" your database and the necessary information and pictures are returned in the form of a web page.

What Is A Database?

A database is an ordered information store. The information is stored in the form of tables, and the tables are accessed by using database information access commands. Some common database systems are PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle and MS-Access.

What Type Of Information Is Suitable For A Database?

In some ways, any information store would be suitable for a database, but there are some things that are better suited than others: address and phone lists, product inventories, lists of information, price lists. All of these types of information can be displayed on a static Web site, and if you have a small amount of information, a static page can be the easiest way to to display it. But if you have a large amount of information, or you want to display the same elements in multiple places, a database makes it much easier.

Do I Need Database Website Design For My Website?

If your website requires constant updates and feeding of information, or contains a high volume of information, then a database driven website will provide an effective solution for you. If you wish to be able to update prices and information speedily and perhaps arrange that your visitors can "search" your website for specific products and be returned with not only the specific product information - but perhaps also other closely related products which they might like to see - then you need a database driven website.

What Advantages Will A Database Design For My Website Offer Me?

Time: Maintaining a website can become time consuming and costly. If you have a large number of products or services on your website - think how much time would be involved if you wished to add another product - if you had to design a new web page and then upload the web page to your website each time you added a new product - or changed prices etc.

If you also wished to arrange that other associated products were to be displayed on the same web page - using a standard html static web pages - the procedure is very time consuming. Imagine having 1000's of products, each with their own website page that needs constantly updating and then uploading to your web space.

It is much simpler if each of these products occupies a single record in a database. Once you have changed the product prices or information in the database records - you can then simply upload the amended database to your website and the end result is that all your web pages are updated in one simple action.

Skill:No HTML or website design knowledge is required. Using a database - if you can complete simple forms you can update your website easily. Large complex websites can be maintained by users with very little computer experience. If you can fill a form in you can run a database driven website.

Ability to easily implement features: such as arranging that your products /services can be displayed in various different ways such as in ascending or descending order alphabetically, by date, or by popularity.

Unique functionality to the website: many features can be added to your website - your database can power a website search facility - enabling your visitors to search your website for products/data relating to specific items. Calculators can be designed and added to your website to provide even more functionality for your visitors. When visitors enter their specific needs,the calculator goes into action and your database can then arrange to display the products which best suit the visitors requirements. This is much nicer for your website visitor than them having to trawl through each of your products to ascertain which is suitable.

Cost: Using a database driven website solution is cost effective. Content management tools will give you the freedom to create dynamic web page content yourself, rather than being dependant upon a third party, a web designer. You can easily add new products or product ranges - change prices and add new pictures very easily. This means that you will not need to pay a web designer to update your web pages Professional database driven website design is a cost effective method of developing a website which stores a large amount of information.

Interactivity: Your website visitors are presented with information which relates specifically to their individual needs. A database driven website provides interactive elements to ensure that users have reasons to return your website on an ongoing basis.

Ability to evolve - As many web pages as you wish: Your website has the ability to evolve without incurring extra costs. Your website can be as large as you choose to make it. Just by adding more records to your database - extra web pages will automatically be created. You can add more categories as well as products - even add sub categories -- all of this ultimately ensures that your web visitors will return to your website.

Do Search Engines Index Dynamic Web Pages?

As your website creates many web pages - this effectively means that the search engines will actually have more content to index - which is advantageous to you. The search engines are of course using the most up to date technology and do crawl, index and list web pages which have been created dynamically.

Once the information is changed in the database, and it is uploaded to the Web server, all information that is in the Web site, becomes updated immediately and the search engines, when they next crawl and spider your web pages will index the new information.

Can You Host Database Driven Websites?

Yes of course! As well as providing the database website design we provide professional business web hosting facilities on our high performance web servers with full 24/7 support.

Will It Be Expensive To Design A Database Driven Website?

No. It is recommended to go for a database driven website even for small websites with static content. A database driven website allows you to upgrade the content according to your requirements dynamically. Also, databases like MySQL are available free of cost.