PHP / MySQL argument

[VillageIdiot906]

My friend and I are having a little tiff on which method we should use to store information.

Here's the deal.
We're using PHP and MySQL to store information about articles... and our opinions diverge on what we should do next.

His Plan:
Store all the information (ID, Title, Author, Description, Content) inside the database and display information that way.

My Plan:
Store ID, Title, Author, and Description in database, but NOT Content and just have an external .xml file for the Content. The external file would just be included on the page with an include command (by the article ID)

We're using a backend program to edit these files... he's argues that it's faster to do it his way and "not pointless"... I say that it's slower because multiple users will be accessing the database at one time, but my way directs them to different files. Also, I think my way is safer.

Any opinions... or better alternatives?

[mazdarx7-64]

Both ways would be fine, IMO. If it is a crapy server (solw CPU and not much RAM) pulling the content from the database would be a tad slower, but as with most web servers the upload speed is more the deciding factor then the server hardware.
If the articles are long it would slow down the database some, and if you had say 50 people pulling at the same time it would suck, depending on server hardware. And with the articles in XML it would be somewhat easier to format the article to look however you want it to.

[Blazer06]

I would say, hands down, that you should go with the PHP & full MySQL setup.

In pure logistecs... his plan has one call to the database.
Your plan has one call to the database (a few miliseconds faster, providing you are using optomized SQL code), and then you have alot of overhead opening the XML file, parseing it to display it, etc.

As far as formatting the articles go... just build a PHP admin section that will allow you to do that.


-Blaze