CMS - writing your own. Database or file driven?

[feenster99]

Hi folks,
I have to write a basic CMS for a client next week, and have been wondering about the best way to store the data. The obvious way is to store it in MySQL, but I wondered about storing the data for each page in an XML file or even just as text/html. Obviously this would make searching harder (as a log XML file would need to be kept detailing what was in the others).

Just wondering if there are any benefits whatsoever in storing the data in flat files instead of a database really? (apart from you don't need a database to run it!)

Cheers,
Matt

 

[feenster99]

Yeah, I thought the XML would be ideal for small sites, but when I gave it more thought, I could only thing of two benefits for larger sites:
- No database required (hence cost saving)
- Ease of backup (ie., a bunch of files over FTP instead of files over FTP + MySQL dump)

I reckon i'll stick to the way everyone else does it - they must have done it for a reason I guess!

Matt