How many databases?

[Nedward]

Hi:

Let's say for example that my website has a WordPress blog, a Cartweaver shopping cart, and a members-only login section.

Would I want 3 separate databases, or can there be an assortment of tables in a single database?

Thanks for your help!

Rgds, Ned

[Lawrence_Cramer]

Hi Ned,

You can go either way, but my recommendation is that you keep everything in a single database. It's more efficient to do so and some hosts wont allow multiple databases.

There is one thing you need to be careful of initially... Make sure that none of the tables from one database have exactly the same name as any of the tables in the other database - Obviously this would not be good when it comes time to merge them.  I know the Cartweaver database very well... I wrote it, so I'm pretty certain this wont be an issue, I was very careful to give all the tables what I felt were both descriptive and likely to be unique names, but double and triple check to be sure first.  Then when it comes time to add one database tables and structure to your other database make sure you back up everything first!!!

If you find that there are going to be conflicts, running two seperat databases isn't a disaster, it can be done, but it's not the cleanest or best way to go.

Hope this helps.

Lawrence   *Adobe Community Expert*
www.Cartweaver.com
Complete Shopping Cart Application for
Dreamweaver, available in ASP, PHP and CF

[David_Powers]

Lawrence_Cramer wrote:

my recommendation is that you keep everything in a single database. It's more efficient to do so and some hosts wont allow multiple databases.

My recommendation is exactly the opposite. I much prefer to keep everything separate. Then, if you decide to move to a different server, you can migrate each database separately, and even to different servers.

[Nedward]

I am so honored to receive responses from two preeminent scholars of Coldfusion and PHP, despite the fact that they are contradictory

Thanks for your help, Ned

[bregent]

Provided that the dbms you are using supports cross database joins in queries, you are always better off using a separate database for each application.