file VS mySQL for storing text?

[buriedUnder]

I need to know which would be the best way to store approx. 500 words of text for a large php/mySQL site.

There are approximately 2000 users with all regular data (tel, email, address, etc) in a mySQL database. The site needs to be totally converted to dynamic pages (ie: template system) and I would appreciate some advise/info on the matter of how to store the text (which is at present in html pages all over the place).

I don't know wether to use text files or to store the data in a database. If I chose a database solution I will need to know what data-type to use for the text (varchar/text/blob???).

Any help / suggestions wil be greatly appreciated.

[AstroTeg]

Not enough info to make a good suggestion because it really depends on what you wish to do with the text.

If the text is just raw as is and you have no plans to search on it or make a lot of changes to it, then I'd say just store it in a file. You then use FTP and the security model it has to manage the files.

But if there's going to be a lot of changes to that text, then it might be better to build an interface to that text. Saving it to a file might still be pretty good.

If you wish to be able to search off of the text, then putting it in the database would be the way to go (although you can still save it in a file, but you'd have to index it). The field type can be text. Read this page: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/BLOB.html it'll explain the difference between blob and text.

[buriedUnder]

thanks for your reply.

the main purpose of the text is to be displayed on a page. It may be edited/changed every few months, but nothing more than that.

No searching will be done on the text, it is strictly for "display" purposes.

I will assume saving it in files will the better solution?

[bastien]

In this case, yes it will.