ASP, CGI and PHP Scripts and Record-Locking: What Every Webmaster Needs To Know - Of course...

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Answer: Performance

Of course, all webmasters are aiming to build busy high traffic
web sites... but will your scripts be able to handle the load?

Go back and re-read the paragraph on file-locking. Now think about
what would happen if all the classified ads on your classified page
were stored in a single file (or all the links on your top site, or
all the subscribers to your autoresponder, etc.).

What would happen?

Answer: Because each update can only be performed after the previous
update has been completely finished, your site may be slow, or even
unable to handle all your users' requests.

So what's the solution?

There's two options that programmers can use:

1. They can use lots of small files and file-lock each
individually (for example, one per classified, one per top site
listing, etc.). Of course, this needs to be handled very
carefully...

2. They can use a database (like MySQL), as databases allow any
one individual record ("row") to be updated, even when another
is also being updated.

Next: Now, let's summarize... >>
 

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