Learning Web Programming: MySQL & PHP for Complex Websites

[Stephanus]

Dear PF Forum,
I want to learn web programming, but there are specifics information that I need to know.
What is the most famous database in web programming? My SQL?
Is it true that PF Forum database is MySQL?
If this is true, then the conclusion is MySQL can handle millions of post, hundreds thousands of member
[===QUOTE=== ="Stephanus, post: 5195119, member: 552565"]I'm sorry, I would never dream to argue you [..]
and several tera bytes of data.
Is this true that PHP can build a website as complex as PF Forum?
So I don't spend time on languages/database that next year I realize that the database/language that I learned is not suitable for my project.
I just need to know what database that is stable and can handle millions of records smoothly.
Any idea what programming language that suit me?
In desktop, I program in C, C++ and Delphi. Knows some assembly, too. And handle OOP very fluently.

Thanks for any suggestion.

 

[Borg]

Hi Stephanus. Most relational database systems like MySQL will handle that many records as long as they have sufficient memory. For a site like PF, that is big enough. However, if you get into really large sites like Facebook, they use NoSQL databases like MongoDB.

 

[Stephanus]

So, let me get this thing clear.
Does PF Forum use MySQL?
Thanks for any confirmation.
So I know that I don't to worry with MySQL. I don't know MySQL, I know only Oracle and SQL Server, and I have witnessed their capability.
So that I don't waste time for something that I don't plan to use.

 

[Borg]

Sorry, I don't know which database PF uses.

 

[Stephanus]

Okay, one more thing.
Why web sites use MySQL not SQL Server?

 

[Borg]

Okay, one more thing.
Why web sites use MySQL not SQL Server?

Well, for one thing, MySQL is free.

 

[jtbell]

Is it true that PF Forum database is MySQL?

@Greg Bernhardt might know.

 

[Borg]

@Greg Bernhardt might know.

If he feels like telling the world. That might be some interesting info for a hacker.

 

[jedishrfu]

Database usage goes way beyond thinking that some database like MySql rules the internet. As @Borg has mentioned there are a lot of contenders such as IBM DB/2, Oracle DB and MS Sql Server. For one thing, MS SqlServer runs exclusively on windows and requires a license so in the age of open source software sites often choose Linux and use open source DB engines such as MySql.

Here's more than you may want to know about MS SqlServer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server

and a comparison of relational based database systems so you can see the variety:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_relational_database_management_systems

and similarly for object-relational based systems as used the the largest of systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_object-relational_database_management_systems

Also there are many architectural strategies such as partioned databases to extend the scalability of the database and shared nothing architecture for fault protection (ie one server goes down so the others take up the slack and the database info is replicated across servers continuously in case a fault occurs.)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What is the most famous database in web programming? My SQL?

MySQL is still generally the most common web database server. It researched popularity because it was bundled in with server control panels.

Is it true that PF Forum database is MySQL?

PF used MySQL up until several months ago. We switched to MariaDB. MariaDB uses the core MySQL technology but has a different developer. This is called forking.

If this is true, then the conclusion is MySQL can handle millions of post, hundreds thousands of member

Yes, no problem

Is this true that PHP can build a website as complex as PF Forum?

Yes no problem

 

[Stephanus]

PF used MySQL up until several months ago

Thank you very much Greg. Several months ago?? I can picture how PF Forum were, several months ago, by judging your website now. Now I do believe MySQL can solve my problems!

We switched to MariaDB. MariaDB uses the core MySQL technology but has a different developer. This is called forking.

Good luck! I do hope your website can create a community where we can share our questions and answers and ideas and knowledges.

 

[jtbell]

PF used MySQL up until several months ago. We switched to MariaDB.

Was this mandated by the switch from vBulletin to Xenforo software? Or can Xenforo use either DB but we also switched DBs for performance or other reasons?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Or can Xenforo use either DB but we also switched DBs for performance or other reasons?

Was just an optional switch for minor improvements. MariaDB is a drop in replacement for MySQL. There is another alternative for MySQL called Percona. With this pressure, Oracle has sped up MySQL development, but in general I am putting my money with the MariaDB development team.

 

[harborsparrow]

MySQL is free and perfectly fine for many small- or medium-scale applications. No license fees at all.

For relational databases required very high performance, however, people general use either Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server. I don't know the situation with Oracle these days, but learning versions of SQL Server and all its development tools are available for free, but implementations can have significant licensing fees. For which a company gets the high performance and reliability etc.

There are distributed, key-value (i.e., "NoSQL") databases stored in the cloud. They are very scalable but performance is less certain, and privacy cannot be guaranteed.

 

[Fooality]

Thank you very much Greg. Several months ago?? I can picture how PF Forum were, several months ago, by judging your website now. Now I do believe MySQL can solve my problems!

Good luck! I do hope your website can create a community where we can share our questions and answers and ideas and knowledges.

Be aware that are limitation to what MySQL can do though, with specific design patterns. I remember older versions of Magento (don't know about now) were tremendously slow due to excessive joins: They tried to create a document DB structure instead of a traditional DB structure on MySQL and ran into big problems. Bill Karwin writes about these pitfalls in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1934356557/?tag=pfamazon01-20
Its worth checking out if you're planning anything beyond the traditional "tables" sort of database for your site.

 

[phinds]

PF used MySQL up until several months ago. We switched to MariaDB. MariaDB uses the core MySQL technology but has a different developer. This is called forking.

I knew it. You've been forking around with the site again.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

MySQL can handle billions of entries without much problem. PHP has multiple ways of interacting with MySQL; PDO is most common.

MariaDB is the same developers as MySQL mostly. Forking is the process, but the reason was actually mostly politics. For a very long time, MySQL was the dominate database technology. It was free so it was used and developed extensively. Oracle has their own database technology and wanted people to start using theirs. So they bought MySQL and stopped all work on it. Since MySQL had a massive open source community, that didn't stop the development, the community took the code, forked it (copied it) and started working in that new copy. That became MariaDB. Oracle still provides MySQL for free (they have to, it's part of MySQL's license) but they can freeze out the developers working on it and not provide any support for it.

The lead developer for MySQL was Michael Widenius, Oracle paid his MYSQL company a billion dollars (literally) for MySQL to try and stop the competition, now, he's CTO of MariaDB. So Oracle essentially paid him a billion dollars to change the name of MySQL :P