In a dynamic database driven website the web page will be automatically generated by server side software by grabbing information from a database and inserting that information into the web page each time it is loaded. When the information in the database changes the web page linked to this database will also display the new information without having to be manually updated. The advantage of such a system is that changing the data in one location will apply the change to multiple web pages.

A good example is if a company keeps their product information in a database. When a client visits the site they get to access this information through multiple web pages. When the product information needs to change, the database has to be updated and this will successfully effect the information presented in all the dynamically created web pages. Online banking sites are another good example of database driven websites.

As you may see, having a database driven site is a powerful tool especially if you are dealing with a site that needs to update its information frequently. Such sites may be built on different platforms and the following are two of the most commonly used platforms:

1. the LAMP server
2. Microsoft server

A resource document discussing the cold fusion server will be published in the near future.

The LAMP server

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

LAMP is an acronym for the popular open-source technologies: the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, the MySQL database, and the PHP, Python and PERL languages. Proponents of this technology see the LAMP server as an open-source alternative to Java and .NET and the LAMP is fully suitable for any application ranging from small businesses to large corporations.

Further discussions on each of the LAMP server software will be published in the near future.

The Microsoft Server

Microsoft Server (C#, ASP, .NET, MSSQL)

The Microsoft web server is one that is setup on the Microsoft server 2003 operating system. Microsoft products, being proprietary software, and therefore adding substantially to the cost of your project, are often replaced by the LAMP server at the client’s request.  For more information on this technology please refer to the Microsoft website.