Which is better...?

Anon

which is better..
Should I create 1 record for an article and split the pages using PHP or should i create a seperate article..???

Pete

Anon

Huh?

As far as databases go, you should create 1 record for each article (or set of related data).

Anon

So then I should make PHP automatically split articles up into pages?

Anon

I'm going to need to know more about what you are doing before I can make that call.

If you are building something like Slashdot, then you probably want a page that holds teaser data on an article (1st paragraph or so), and a link to a page that holds the full thing. If your articles are very large and you want to split them up over multiple pages then you should have PHP cut the article off at some point (say 1000 character) and then have a way to tell PHP to start the article at the 1001 character on the next page.

kparker

That so very much depends. If the article is something like a news report, letting PHP break it is a good idea. (I'd definitely advise something a bit more sophisticated than simply breaking at the nth character, regardless of where it falls in terms of the words and sentences.)

But if the article is something more structured--say, for example, your authors are supposed to break up the major and minor sections with <h2&gtl and <h3> tags, then it might make more sense to start a new page at each major break.

sepodati

Either way, you're going to use PHP to split up the article. Either when it's inserted (multiple records), or when it's shown (single record).

I think it'd be easier (if we're talking databases) to have an articleID, pageID, and a text column. Then store each page in a single row. There will be more people browsing the articles than there is inserting them (hopefully), so that means less code running when the people view the pages. You simple search for article=X, page=X, and retrieve the text.

This would cut the page breaking down to a single area, where you could allow the users to break it themselves, using a special code like <!--PAGE BREAK--!>, or if they don't use the code, then break it at the first period before the nth character...

I don't think searching would be affected either. Actually it may be more relevant since you can point to the exact page that the search term is on.

So, in conclusion, I vote for the multiple records idea, each record holding one page.

---John Holmes...