Include Text Files for Text Content?

[kael.shipman]

Hey everyone,

 

Is it pretty standard procedure to use .txt files to store textual content on a big site? I have the content set up in the database right now, but management is a headache at best and I want a system whereby I can easily edit the content from a text editor or from a browser interface. I can see the text file solution filling both of these needs, not to mention that in my preliminary testing it was almost twice as fast as calling from the database (even with good indexes). I just don't want to redesign my whole system only to find out that someone already tried it this way and it didn't work. I also have a search page to worry about, for which I was planning on simply iterating through the files and checking each as I would a database entry. The search page is almost negligible, though. Not only does it not get much traffic, but we're mainly a catalog site, so anyone searching the site would likely be searching products anyway.

 

Please let me know if you see any catastrophic holes in my plan!

 

Thanks,

Kael

[Wildbug]

If it's easier for you to work with and still functions, then it should be fine.  You might use an XML format in the text file.  As far as searching, you could always use a "home cooked" index file and/or a system grep command.

[kael.shipman]

Thanks; looks like I'm switching! I love databases and all, but it seems sometimes there's just a better way.