How to handle large data sources

[lyle]

Dear All,

I've been using the approach of placing an External Data Source on my page and then selecting desired fields and publishing. The problem I encounter is that the publishing either doesn't complete or takes hours. The data source is an MS Access database of about 160,000 records which I want the user to be able to scroll through and I will provide another form to allow filtering so it doesn't display all the records. I can convert the file to MySql or MSSql if that would help. But I'm wondering if I'm taking the wrong approach.

I'm thinking that the way I'm doing this is making NetObjects generate hundreds of pages or something so that records can be scrolled through. Is there another approach where the records are fetched page at a time from the server?

So in general, I'm looking for the right way to allow the user to view the large data files I have. Any suggestions much welcome, including perhaps embedding so php or javascript or whatever.

Thanks greatly,

Lyle

[Ritch]

Using MySQL and the Database components within Netobjects is your best approach. IMO

All the hard grunt work is undertaken on the server with only the results being presented to the user.

[lyle]

Hi Rich,

Thanks so much for your answer. One issue I have is that the hosting service does not allow remote access to a database, so the connection fails I believe because I am developing on my NetObjects on my home computer. It's a debian host with apache. Once the site is published, I think it could connect. But I don't see how to configure a table as table add is grayed out probably because connection isn't made. I don't know how to get around this. I will also check with the hosting company for suggestions.

Thanks greatly,

Lyle

[lyle]

Hi Rich,

I spoke to the hoster and they said i need to use the connection string in php file. Not sure how I would go about this. I have a working php connection string to the same database in a little php file both on my home computer and on the server. Don't know how I would integrate it with the connector in NetObjects.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Lyle

[gotFusion]

This might help you out

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php

[lyle]

Thank you Mike!!