[RESOLVED] Storing EVERYTHING in a database: good idea?

wyattstorch42

I'm rebuilding my portfolio/website/blog from scratch. In the past, I have used MySQL very limitedly (is that a word)? This time, I've been considering putting everything in a database, since that makes importing, exporting, backing up, transferring, etc. very simple.

My question: should I really put everything in the database? Template? Pages? Even images? I'm concerned that recalling graphics all the time from the database would really hurt my bandwidth and consume lots of resources, but I don't know. If I do that, do I need to develop a cache for the really common images, like the ones that make up the HTML template?

You're advice means a lot. I've never taken full advantage of SQL before, and I'd like to start.

Thanks,
"Ellis Wyatt"

bradgrafelman

IMHO, images should rarely ever be stored in a DB because doing so offers no advantages while not doing so does. Let the file system take care of the files - that's what it's for. It's much easier to enable built-in caching features for image files rather than BLOB data stored in a DB.

Other than that, I suppose it would depend on your application/needs. Would you ever need to index/search/sort or otherwise manipulate the content? If so, perhaps storing it in a RDBMS would be a good idea.

wyattstorch42

bradgrafelman;10970703 wrote:
IMHO, images should rarely ever be stored in a DB because doing so offers no advantages while not doing so does. Let the file system take care of the files - that's what it's for. It's much easier to enable built-in caching features for image files rather than BLOB data stored in a DB.

Other than that, I suppose it would depend on your application/needs. Would you ever need to index/search/sort or otherwise manipulate the content? If so, perhaps storing it in a RDBMS would be a good idea.

So, essentially, I should store images and the template as files and store content in the database because it's searchable and indexable.

Thanks for your advice.

bradgrafelman

That's just my personal opinion, and I'm no professional DBA by any means.

I would suggest that before you design a single table or write a single line of code, you find some good articles on Database Normalization (Google should net you a plethora of results on the topic) if you haven't already.