Re: Which DB/Software suite combo is best for Web<->DB implementation

nthelen_at_pbjcorp.com wrote:
> Which DB/Software suite combo is the best for Web<->DB implementation?
> What I exactly mean by this is that there are lots of technologies out
> there and I want to hear some feed back as to what has worked well for
> you, but also just as important, what has NOT worked well for you.
> The projects are going to range from small to large so I am open to
> anything.

Don't even think about Informix's web datablade. For scripting solutions, check out

1. http://www.php.net/ (GNU) PHP (linux, NT, others?)
2. http://www.allaire.com/ (commercial) Cold Fusion (NT, solaris, linux soon)
3. http://www.webcatalog.com/ (commercial) webcatalog (NT, Mac)
4. http://www.cpan.net/ (GNU) perl (everything; apache mod_perl)
5. http://www.metahtml.org/ (GNU) meta-html (unix)

Sybase's web scripting thing is nice; like server-side javascript. Also look at server-side java.
(1) and (2) seem to be the biggest in their fields. PHP people have been known to switch to cold fusion for productivity reasons. I guess it depends on the complexity of the app. PHP has plenty of demo libs of stuff.
There are _many_ others. They are mostly identical.

Critical features for real-world apps:

1. ability to call external libraries
2. control over transaction begin/commit
3. maintainabilty (version churn, learning curve, syntax, ..)
4. scalablity also watch out for engines that will cache parse-trees/compiled script code. (PHP: 'Zend') Note that MS visual studio will 'kill' javascript when you open/save a web page. very sad. Watch out for your script's 'compatability' with the graphicist's favourite html editors. It's no fun if they give you a refreshed look that has had all the scripting stripped out...

Tha MAIN PAIN with this stuff is having to 'rewrite' everything each time
the graphics people change the appearences. Advice:
  learn javascript _real well_
  test on all browser/OS combinations
  don't underestimate the power of the FRAMESET

Otherwise, look at 3-tier solutions, of which there are many. start from http://www.cetus-links.org/ for more details. also see http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html about larger-scale multi-tier things.
See also <http://members.tripod.com/john_mullee/bca_report/index.html> for an overview of 3-tier generic structure.

I hear interesting things about OODBs. Gemstone, objectstore, ... SGML, on the other hand, is a quite different career path.

john Received on Mon Apr 12 1999 - 00:00:00 CEST