PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS

Of course, avoiding having your data corrupted should be paramount consideration in choosing a script, but is there anything else we need to be concerned about?

Answer: Performance

Of course, all webmasters are aiming to build busy high traffic web sites... but will your scripts be able to handle load?

Go back and re-read paragraph on file-locking. Now think about what would happen if all classified ads on your classified page were stored in a single file (or all links on your top site, or all subscribers to your autoresponder, etc.).

What would happen?

Answer: Because each update can only be performed after previous update has been completely finished, your site may be slow, or even unable to handle all your users' requests.

So what's solution?

There's two options that programmers can use:

1. They can use lots of small files and file-lock each individually (for example, one per classified, one per top site listing, etc.). Of course, this needs to be handled very carefully...

2. They can use a database (like MySQL), as databases allow any one individual record ("row") to be updated, even when another is also being updated.

IN CONCLUSION

Now, let's summarise:

1. Scripts that store data in files need to use file-locking to avoid data-corruption, and they also need to break data into separately updateable chunks to avoid performance problems on busy web sites.

2. Scripts that store data in databases (like MySQL), provided of course that they have been properly coded, are usually less likely to suffer from data-corruption or performance problems.

And one additional point:

3. Even best script is not immune to hard-disk hardware failures, your web host being struck by lightning, and all other snafus that can happen. So, do take regular back-ups of any data that you can't afford to lose!

In short, even if you're not a script programmer, you need to be aware of data storage issues. In future, when considering a script for your web site, don't be afraid to ask some hard questions about how it stores data and how well it handles multiple users.

This article is Copyright (C) 2005, Answers 2000 Limited.

About Author: This article was written by Sunil Tanna of Answers 2000. For a directory of ASP, CGI, PHP and Remotely hosted scripts, please visit http://www.scriptcavern.com - and for scripts written by Answers 2000 please visit http://www.scriptrocket.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------

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