Database Design
Database driven applications provide tremendous flexibility and powerful functionality for websites with a broad range of objectives.
Many blogs, content management systems, and photo albums employ a database to store, sort and retrieve large amounts of information. Many websites employ a database to enable a search feature. Most large e-commerce websites employ a database to serve information about their products. Most of the rest store information in XML files with a database-style SGML architecture.
Many companies use database applications to store, retrieve, and share information, such as customer records, order history, or finished goods inventory. A database retrieval system can be hosted on a local network for office use; or it can be hosted on a web server and password protected to share information with clients. For example, a finished goods inventory database could list which items a manufacturer or warehouse had ready in an "on the shelf" state for its clients who make purchases on an ongoing basis. Such a system can store item information including description and dollar value of available quantity; and a customer, once logged in, could view the inventory and request call-outs with a simple click.
