Posted on June 6th, 2010A Dynamic Website calls for the use of programming languages -such as ASP, PHP, JSP, CGI, Java, Oracle, Perl, Ajax, or ColdFusion to gather certain records of information from your database, such as MySQL or Microsoft Access, and shows data on the screen. A database is a compilation of records that arranges information into categories for easy retrieval by a programming language or computer program.
Many nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and sole proprietors with limited-content sites might not need a dynamic capability. Having dynamic content on your Website practically depends on the budget and your goals. For sites with plenty of content, a well-designed database and dynamic capability should be seriously considered. By organizing information in a database, your content can be selectively retrieved according to different rules or scenarios set up in advance. For example, you might want to show the ten latest news items about your company on a page, or maybe you want to display a calendar so that people can view upcoming events. By assuming that new data is systematically being entered into a database, programming queries can be set to sort article publication dates and retrieve ten latest files on a page. Databases must be used even if you’re selling a few products on your site to ensure easy expansion; however, you should also use database to store and pull all kinds of data. For example, you might choose to use a database on the site to show:
- Papers, articles, and documents sorted by title, author, author, and so on
- Detailed information on services
- Calendar of events, contact information, important dates, and schedules
- Product categories and detailed product information
- Customer data for example account information, order records, previous shopping cart details and account information
- Contact information, hours of operation, and store locations
- Tracking information for downloads and uploads in the site
- FAQs and glossary of industry-related terms
Other than to dynamically accessing and using information, databases can be helpful for adding, editing, and deleting content on your site. For an added fee, most programmers and host providers will build a custom CMS (Content Management System) for a site, which lets site owners to easily control specific sections of a site – without having to master a programming language or even HTML – via a customized Web user interface. Depending on the challenge of meeting the dynamic needs and the project size, a customized CMS may cost from $100 to as much as $10,000 or perhaps more. This type of efficient tool can be very useful for sites that need frequent updates. Though admittedly cool and slick, not every site should use a database. To know whether a site needs one, check at the content type you want to show and ask your client (or yourself) the following questions:
- How frequently will the content need updating and editing? Sites with constant update requirements could benefit from a well-maintained database, whereas sites needing less frequent updates might be better off using simpler configuration. In sites with no database, updates can be carried out by the designer who developed the site or by the site owner using simple-to-use Web-based application.
- Are more than ten products or services being offered? If the site is offering very few products, it can still be acceptable if all product pages are made manually. However, if you have more than ten products with the possibility of having more products added, using a database to create product pages dynamically is much more efficient.
- What kind of online business growth does the company expect to achieve? For a few sites, negligible growth is expected, and as a result you have no real reasons for using dynamic capabilities. However, sites that plan to improve their business over the coming years could greatly benefit from developing a site that can accommodate such growth.
- Does the site need to gather and use visitors’ data? Online stores have good reasons to gather data from buyers, to both streamline the transaction process and deliver promotional information. In other hand, some smaller businesses might only need to pull required information by using an Excel file and a simple HTML form.
- Will there be plenty of dynamic content – like a listing of distributors or the ten most interesting news stories – to justify the extra cost of making your site dynamic? If you have enough fund and foresee a demand for dynamic content, arranging a database-driven site from the get go can be more efficient than converting a static HTML-based site down the road.
Of course the old adage “to earn cash, you have to spend cash” pertains, but deciding the amount of money spent to make a dynamic site can be tricky. Ultimately, the final decision about whether to develop a dynamic site should be reasonably clear after answering the above questions. If you are still doubtful about whether to install a database and customized CMS, get quotes from hosting companies and programmers to see how it may impact your project budget.