Your Online Presence > Strategy & Development, Managing Content

Why build a web database

By TechSoup

This article in collaboration with TechSoup explains why you might want to get a database driven website.

Introduction

The relationship between voluntary sector organisations and Web technology has evolved a great deal since the dawn of the Internet.

In the beginning the brochure website dominated - where organisations used the Web to display basic information about available projects, services and how to get in touch. These sites typically were creatively and technically managed by a lone member of staff, often working only a few hours here and there to keep the site up and running.

Now the web is not so new anymore. The number of web users has grown dramatically. Increasingly, voluntary sector organisations are considering how best to build online tools to engage their audience in more substantial, targeted and interactive ways. This can mean that the lone member of staff responsible for maintaining the site is feeling just a bit overwhelmed.

Web databases

In computer terms, a database is simply a collection of information organised in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. A database can be thought of as an electronic filing system.

A web database is useful for organising large amounts of information which can be displayed on a web site.

Consider this problem: A national umbrella organisation plans to present information about all its member organisations, arranged by their area of work and physical location. The umbrella body has 400 member organisations that cover 10 main areas of work and are located in all counties across the UK.

Possible Static Solutions

Develop 403 pages. Two long pages - one to list all 400 organisations grouped by location the other listing organisations grouped by work area. A third page needs to contain the links to the two long pages, and 400 more pages are needed for the full profile of each organisation. Or you could develop nearer 500 pages - one for each of the counties in the UK, one for each of the 10 work areas, one page to contain the links to each individual location and work area pages, and then 400 pages, each containing the full profile of each member organisation. 

Database Driven Solution

Develop three pages. The first lists all the work areas and locations available in the database for the visitor to select. The second page then lists all the organisation names pulled from the database in a list according to the visitor's selection from the first page. The third page provides all the profile information from the database for the organisation the visitor selected from the organisation name list.

Simple database driven websites allow you to view data, first in pre-determined ways and then through interactive mechanisms.

The key benefit of a Web database is the separation of the data from its presentation. This separation makes it possible to focus on managing the content of the site without spending time designing and redesigning its presentation. By using the same Web page for the member organisation's work area and location lists, and another one Web page for the member organisation profile, the design of the Web page is kept the same while the data on the page changes depending on what the visitor chooses.

Databases are a great tool for managing large amounts of information, and for managing frequently changing information requiring less staff time.

In the example above, information about member organisations can be changed from a database window separately from any complicated Web code, and the changes will automatically and immediately be revealed on the Web site.

The same benefit applies to the design of the Web pages themselves. If the umbrella organisation wishes to make a visual change to the presentation of the member organisation information, they only need to edit a maximum of three Web pages, not 400+.

Databases enable the same information to be re-purposed for a variety of needs and presentations. In our example above, if the umbrella organisation needs to present member organisations according to some other criteria such as organisation size, this information can be readily retrieved from existing data in the database (assuming this information is recorded in the database) and presented to the visitor using the existing three Web pages. No need to redesign any of the web page templates, just filter the database information differently.

Databases can be used in a variety of ways to help engage an audience. Database driven Web sites can allow users to interact with the data - they can search and view database information, and more advanced applications allow users to add, delete, and modify the data in appropriate ways.

In 2002, DIAL UK - a national organisation for a network of local Disability Information and Advice Line services, put information about DIALs across the UK onto its Web site. The information was stored in a database. A set of database driven Web pages was then built that would allow visitors to pull the information directly from this database. The website now offers a "find a dial" search feature that provides visitors several options for filtering the list of DIALs by different categories and by keyword. Since the DIAL information changes only periodically throughout the year, the agency simply makes the changes in their database as usual, and a copy of this database is uploaded to the web server (computer on which the website resides) whenever the site needs updating.

Advanced database driven websites

More and more consultants and Web design firms are offering Content Management System (CMS) solutions to organisations looking to expand their websites.

CMS commonly refers to software that separates website content from its design for an entire website. A CMS is typically focused on providing tools for staff to manage website content without extensive knowledge of web development.

We have already discussed simple examples of a custom CMS - the websites discussed above provide a level of content management for specific portions of a site. Advanced content management systems frequently provide tools for managing all content on the website. They often also provide staff with additional content process tools, such as workflow coordination by providing a tool for content creation, editorial review and approval with various levels of staff access.

Forefront has developed a custom content management system that allows staff to manage both public and member only content via a set of content administration pages hosted online. The site gives public visitors the option to view each member's profiles by name, region and country, or to customise their results by searching for a keyword. Each individual member profile also lists links to other profiles from the same region or country, providing the public with an intuitive system for exploring members sharing similarities.

In addition, Forefront members have secure access to a members only resource providing web pages that access private newsletter content stored in the online database. Each member profile and newsletter content is stored in the same database, and the information can be administered and modified via a secure staff-only section of the website. Forefront staff can simply browse the member profiles or newsletters online, choose one to edit, and then make any additions or modifications to the content itself. Once the changes are submitted, the content is then immediately available on the website.

Since content management systems typically focus on providing easy tools for staff content developers to maintain online content, the benefits to the website audience, although large, are mostly invisible.

Using a database also means that your website can have features such as:

• Discussion boards - any online bulletin board where site visitors can leave and expect to see responses to messages they have left, or visitors can just read the board (e.g. the discussion forum on Rightsnet - Lasa's welfare rights website for advice workers Rightsnet)
• User personalisation systems (where visitors login to a site to view information targeted to their needs (e.g. MyTechsoup)
• Content syndication - live feeds of content from one site to another (e.g. http://w.moreover.com/cgi-local/dev/register_step_one.pl provides newsfeeds that others can use on their own websites)