[FX.php List] Two DB's or One?

[Kevin Futter]

On 23/9/06 11:55 AM, "Jonathan Schwartz" <jonathan at eschwartz.com> wrote:

> Up until now, all my fx.php solutions have been built around an
> isolated FMP database to serve the web.  When there is a primary db
> back at the client, I use various routines to update and synch the
> two, as needed. Obviously, none of the solutions required live
> up-to-the-second data availability on the web.
> 
> I'm wondering how many folks are using the same db for both internal
> and web publishing?  If so, how is it working out?  If not, why not?
> 
> A little bit more detail...if the client isn't sophisticated, doesn't
> have an IT staff or a fast WAN connection, this would suggest to me
> *not* to keep the web db at the client office.  Rather, keep the web
> db at a reliable web host.
> 
> One more detail.  I promise. ;-)....If the solution is in FMP 6, that
> would pretty much rule putting the entire solution in a remote
> hosting location, because FMP is so poor in a WAn environment.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Jonathan

We do this as a matter of necessity - we have close to 100 FM databases that
the school relies on in various ways. Some of the data in some of the
databases needs to make it on to the website. So we simply enable that
particular db for web access and the website retrieves the data as
necessary. I feel much happier doing this in v8 than v6, but most of our dbs
are still in v6.

Does this have negative impacts? You betcha. For one, if someone fiddles
with any of the dbs (makes changes etc), they usually don't tell me, and it
just silently stops working on the website. I've had people rename fields
and even whole databases that the website talks too! (It's really only one
person actually...)

Another problem is that it's extremely difficult to work on a database to
improve it (for either web or internal use) when it's absolutely relied on
by the entire school every working day. Web-only dbs don't present this kind
of problem.

Of course, there's the security issues too, which I'm always anxious about.
What if crucial admin data gets inadvertently exposed to the web?

But really, none of these things are performance issues, which with FM often
comes down to the hardware involved. Our old FMU6 box is a lowly G4-466,
whereas our FMSA8 box is a mid-level G5 (2GHz I think), and there's a *HUGE*
difference in response. And the WPE is running on a G3-450!

-- 
Kevin Futter
Webmaster, St. Bernard's College
http://www.sbc.melb.catholic.edu.au/



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