Welcome to the December 2000 issue of the CyberArtisans monthly newsletter!

Our goal is to present information that will be useful to you as a web site owner. If these newsletters are not useful to you, please forward this to a friend who will find it useful. To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the bottom of this email.

Oops: Last issue was inadvertently numbered 4 instead of 5. Anyone catch that? Apparently not -- no emails about it. Good.

Using a Database With Your Web Site

So Santa brought you a database for your website, did he? Great, now all you have to do is figure out how to get the batteries in and try to decipher the manual.

Many recently-built web sites include a database. This month we're going to examine the ways a database can be useful in a web site, and review the pros and cons of each use. First, however, let's look at how a database and a website co-exist, and why.

The Database and the Website

A database stores and retrieves data. Nothing very special about that. What is special, however, is how a database retrieves data. Consider this: Suppose we have a database with data on 10 million houses and we ask it to find all the houses where door = "red" and faces = "west" and attic = "finished." In a couple of seconds (or less) it will find all the houses that have red doors, face west, and have a finished attic. And you could give it any combination of requirements and almost instantly get a list of the houses that meet those requirements. Information like this can power up your business, but only if that information is organized in a useful form. Databases (OK, well-designed databases) do that.

One aspect of databases that is critical is the so-called user interface -- that is, the mechanism for letting a human use the database. For the convenience of humans (who have more limitations than computers when handling data), we usually use a carefully organized and labeled form to present the requirements to the database and a table (also carefully organized and labeled) to present the results.

Now let's look at the other side -- the website. Websites have long been able to accept data using a form and present data using a table. Forms and tables, in fact, have been part of HTML almost from the beginning. So (the theory went), why not use a website form to send data to a database and a website table to present the data that the database generates. It worked, and from that discovery came dynamic websites.

Using a Database with a Website

Now, here's what's so interesting about dynamic web pages: A single web page can look different every time it's presented. The database determines what's on the page. (Never mind how it's done -- you don't want to know unless you've been having trouble sleeping lately and need a good sleep-inducer.) There are a lot of variations on this theme:

• Multiple password privileges -- Each user has a different level of privilege. When he or she enters a username and password, the database determines that user's privilege level. From there on, each (dynamic) page this user looks at displays only the data this user is privileged to see. Another user may look at the same pages and see very different things.
• Product catalogs -- The user selects a category of product and immediately gets access to the pages of the catalog that contain those products. Remember, the easier it is to find a product in your catalog, the more likely the buyer will buy. Want to be really sneaky? Have your website identify this user with a cookie (remember, there's no personal information in a cookie -- just an identifying number) and have your database record which products the user clicks on for a closer look. Next time that user signs on, present some specials in the same categories he or she looked at before. To see the ultimate example of this, go to Amazon.com, look at a few products you wouldn't usually look at, and then go back later to see what specials they offer. Amazon says this strategy works quite well.
• Tech support pages -- The user selects a product, a model number, and a specific part of the product, and gets access to the exact documentation needed. Documentation updates can be handled easily without any changes to the web pages -- just upload a revised copy and you're done.
• Collecting customer data -- Ask the user for some basic information (name, phone, email) in exchange for some freebie you offer on your site. You now have a list of people interested in the subject of your freebie who you can market to by email (but please, remember to use opt-out email so you can't be accused of spamming). For example, we offer a free article on working with your web developer on our home page (http://www.cyberartisans.com). Once you enter your name, phone, and email you are taken to the download page.

You can play with a simple example of a dynamic website at http://www.cyberartisans.com/demos/.

Conclusions

OK, enough already. As you can see, I can talk (or type) about dynamic websites much longer than you can listen or read. Suffice it to say that
It doesn't cost a lot to make this happen.

If your website could benefit from some dynamic supercharging, call or email us
Thanks for joining us this month. Hope you are having a great holiday.

Jonathan Spencer
CyberArtisans Web Developers

http://www.cyberartisans.com/
617-965-4110