PHP or MySQL forums?

[Jas]

Which is better? Using MySQL for forums and running it out of space, (MySQL only alows so much space right?) or using php to write files and create chaos?

I will be hosting this site myself when it launches, so no worries there.

[thetestingsite]

Well, both take up space; however, MySQL is both more reliable and less of a "resource hog". I would recommend using MySQL for it, but that's just my opinion.

Hope this helps.

[Medyman]

Well, both take up space; however, MySQL is both more reliable and less of a "resource hog". I would recommend using MySQL for it, but that's just my opinion.

Hope this helps.

I would have to second that.

It would also depend on the system you're using.

[Jas]

Thank you! I was hoping you would say MySQL. Doesn't MySQL have a restraint on how much space you can use, though? Or is that only per-table?

[thetestingsite]

As far as I'm aware of, you can use as much space as your server disk will allow; I could be wrong though.

[hanji]

Yes.. mysql all the way. You'd have to really have an out of control forum or bad hosting account to run out of space. Also, remember to optimize your tables often.. that'll free up unused space that once held data, etc. You'd be amazed how much 'overhead' is left after deletes, etc.

hanji

[djr33]

MySQL does have a limit on some systems (windows?), but that limit is 4GB, so I think you'd be ok (4GB of text data is crazy. My forum, which is doing quite well, for a few years, is about 50mb in the MySQL Db.)

Definitely use MySQL. It is designed for this, fairly easy to use, and you know it will be (generally) efficient. Text files would be fine too, but they aren't designed for it (so you'd need to write your own functions in PHP to search them, etc. Why?), take some complex manipulation to get any sensible system running (as in not a new text file per post/item), and run slowly when searched, since they are not optimized and these text files can get long, so it's just like searching really long strings for data.

[Twey]

MySQL does have a limit on some systems (windows?), but that limit is 4GB

That's a filesystem limit, not a MySQL limit. FAT32 doesn't allow files bigger than 4GiB, and MySQL stores each database in a single file. A Windows server using NTFS should be able to store databases up to around 16TiB.

[Jas]

What's a TiB?

[djr33]

Same as TB. Twey just uses TiB for clarification. And, sadly, I can't remember what.
Either way, it means terabyte.
Now that I think about it... wouldn't it be TeB or TaB? //confused