The Place of a Database in E-Commerce

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A Web server is clearly essential for an e-commerce Web site, but in most cases a database is no less important. Although the database need not be involved in all aspects of your site (your privacy policy or warranty information statement may be provided as static pages, for example), it s difficult to run an effective site of any complexity without using a database in some capacity. Many of the services supported by e-commerce sites involve the customer directly, but the utility of a database extends beyond that to other areas as well. A database allows you to

• Store your product catalog so that customers and staff can browse through it or perform searches on it.

• Store and process orders submitted by customers.

• Store product registrations, comments, questions, or survey results.

• Maintain customer and supplier lists so that you can send out notices of product updates or changes in ordering policies.

• Generate reports of all kinds. Query inventory levels for items in the product catalog to determine which need to be reordered; summarize customer orders for a sales report; summarize orders to suppliers for an expense report.

Should You Use MySQL for E-Commerce?

What database should you use for your site? In particular, should you use MySQL for e-commerce applications? It s only fair to tell you that some people say no, some of them quite emphatically.^[1] However, you should also know that objections to using MySQL for e-commerce have been based largely on the lack of support for transactions in older versions. Prior to version 3.23.17, MySQL had no transaction support.

^[1] http://openacs.org/philosophy/why-not-mysql.html provides some interesting, if occasionally rabid, reading on this topic.

That s no longer true, so transaction-based objections to MySQL as an e-commerce engine have little force. Naturally, you should use the database that works best for you; I encourage you to run your own tests and evaluations. If you re running your own server, you should be able to upgrade to a recent version of MySQL if necessary to perform such evaluations. If a separate service provider hosts your site, you re more likely to have an older version. Providers tend not to upgrade very often, to avoid surprising their customers; therefore, you may need to ask your provider for a more recent version of MySQL if you need transaction support. Note also that even for recent versions, transaction support may not have been configured in; be sure your server was built to include transactional capabilities. Transactions are discussed further in Performing Transactions later in this chapter.

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