Online Shop: Best method Storing/Retrieving Data

[bernie321]

Hi

Sorry this is going to be a long question:

We are putting together an online store and would like recommendations on how to store / retrieve data.

In the past we have stored most of our data in SQL Server and used SQL Client to access it and insert the data into the html within the ASPX page using literals etc.

This proved ok with small amounts of data on a page (such as for news articles), but we moved away from SQL Server as our webhost provided poor server uptime so moved to XML, using XmlDocument to access the data.

Thankfully we have dumped this webhost and moved to a more reliable one, so have access to SQL Server again! But this has now posed the question should I move back or should I continue to use XML, perhaps a mixture of both SQL Server for the searching and separate XML files (maybe exported from SQL Server so I can move back should the need arise!) for each product for speed?

Its initially not going to have many hits but I best not plan for no business, I’ll set my sights high.

Our online store will probably have a small amount of products but a large amount of ‘fiddly’ data such as this page from dabs with lots of individual specifications

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4QVT&InMerch=1

Using both my previous SQL Client method and XMLDocument method with all data in a single document I have found that it is a pain in the neck to code and update the code.

What is the best method of getting data to webpage? Would individual XML documents suit my needs best to reduce the coding?

The only other prob is that the design has been created by a designer, I would rather use a system that allows me to use their basic HTML / CSS code and just add literals or similar for the data.

Sorry about the large amount of info, any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
B

 

[ca8msm]

Yes, definately move back to SQL Server. A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a much more efeective method of storing and retrieving data than a flat file.


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Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Delivering professional ASP.NET solutions
[URL unfurl="true"]http://weblogs.asp.net/marksmith[/url]

 

[bernie321]

Thanks Mark

But what would be the best method of displaying the data as the dabs site (above). Reducing codeing etc, are there ways of reducing codeing using XML files?

Thanks
B

 

[ca8msm]

What do you mean? Do you mean what is the best structure to store the individual features in? Or, do you mean what is the best control to use to display them?


-------------------------------------------------------

Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Delivering professional ASP.NET solutions
[URL unfurl="true"]http://weblogs.asp.net/marksmith[/url]