✎ faq:database [DokuWiki]

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" dir="ltr" class="no-js"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>✎ faq:database [DokuWiki]</title> <meta name="generator" content="DokuWiki"/> <meta name="theme-color" content="#008800"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"/> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/lib/exe/opensearch.php" title="DokuWiki"/> <link rel="start" href="/"/> <link rel="contents" href="/faq:database?do=index" title="Sitemap"/> <link rel="manifest" href="/lib/exe/manifest.php"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Recent Changes" href="/feed.php"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Current namespace" href="/feed.php?mode=list&ns=faq"/> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Plain HTML" href="/_export/xhtml/faq:database"/> <link rel="alternate" type="text/plain" title="Wiki Markup" href="/_export/raw/faq:database"/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/lib/exe/css.php?t=dokuwiki&tseed=f1005bad3d81fc9c803c7f93d32a390e"/> <script >var NS='faq';var JSINFO = {"plugins":{"edittable":{"default columnwidth":""}},"id":"faq:database","namespace":"faq","ACT":"edit","useHeadingNavigation":0,"useHeadingContent":0};(function(H){H.className=H.className.replace(/\bno-js\b/,'js')})(document.documentElement);</script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.4/jquery.min.js" defer="defer"></script> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.13.2/jquery-ui.min.js" defer="defer"></script> <script src="/lib/exe/js.php?t=dokuwiki&tseed=f1005bad3d81fc9c803c7f93d32a390e&lang=en" defer="defer"></script> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico" /> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/apple-touch-icon.png" /> <meta name="verify-v1" content="OVxl3gsCv2MhZqh1cBQyl0JytWXSwXMjyvwc+4w3WtA=" /> <meta name="google-site-verification" content="YhTVK69hW94ZXUtc2zSLPxTkZKbZIn0zK67mz5WQB-E" />  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-83791-1"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-83791-1', { 'anonymize_ip': true }); </script> </head> <body> <div id="dokuwiki__site"><div id="dokuwiki__top" class="site dokuwiki mode_edit tpl_dokuwiki hasSidebar">  <header id="dokuwiki__header"><div class="pad group"> <div class="headings group"> <ul class="a11y skip"> <li><a href="#dokuwiki__content">skip to content</a></li> </ul> <h1 class="logo"><a href="/start" accesskey="h" title="Home [h]"><img src="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/logo.png" width="64" height="64" alt="" /><span>DokuWiki</span></a></h1> <p class="claim">It's better when it's simple</p> </div> <div class="tools group">  <div id="dokuwiki__usertools"> <h3 class="a11y">User Tools</h3> <ul> <li class="action login"><a href="/faq:database?do=login&sectok=" title="Log In" rel="nofollow"><span>Log In</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M10 17.25V14H3v-4h7V6.75L15.25 12 10 17.25M8 2h9a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v16a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8a2 2 0 0 1-2-2v-4h2v4h9V4H8v4H6V4a2 2 0 0 1 2-2z"/></svg></a></li> </ul> </div>  <div id="dokuwiki__sitetools"> <h3 class="a11y">Site Tools</h3> <form action="/start" method="get" role="search" class="search doku_form" id="dw__search" accept-charset="utf-8"><input type="hidden" name="do" value="search" /><input type="hidden" name="id" value="faq:database" /><div class="no"><input name="q" type="text" class="edit" title="[F]" accesskey="f" placeholder="Search" autocomplete="on" id="qsearch__in" value="" /><button value="1" type="submit" title="Search">Search</button><div id="qsearch__out" class="ajax_qsearch JSpopup"></div></div></form> <div class="mobileTools"> <form action="/doku.php" method="get" accept-charset="utf-8"><div class="no"><input type="hidden" name="id" value="faq:database" /><select name="do" class="edit quickselect" title="Tools"><option value="">Tools</option><optgroup label="Page Tools"><option value="">Show page</option><option value="revisions">Old revisions</option><option value="backlink">Backlinks</option></optgroup><optgroup label="Site Tools"><option value="recent">Recent Changes</option><option value="media">Media Manager</option><option value="index">Sitemap</option></optgroup><optgroup label="User Tools"><option value="login">Log In</option></optgroup></select><button type="submit">></button></div></form> </div> <ul> <li class="action recent"><a href="/faq:database?do=recent" title="Recent Changes [r]" rel="nofollow" accesskey="r">Recent Changes</a></li><li class="action media"><a href="/faq:database?do=media&ns=faq" title="Media Manager" rel="nofollow">Media Manager</a></li><li class="action index"><a href="/faq:database?do=index" title="Sitemap [x]" rel="nofollow" accesskey="x">Sitemap</a></li> </ul> </div> </div>  <div class="breadcrumbs"> <div class="trace"><span class="bchead">Trace:</span></div> </div> <hr class="a11y" /> </div></header> <div class="wrapper group">  <main id="dokuwiki__content"><div class="pad group"> <div class="pageId"><span>faq:database</span></div> <div class="page group">  <script>textChanged = false;</script> <p> Edit the page and hit <code>Save</code>. See <a href="/wiki:syntax" class="wikilink1" title="wiki:syntax" data-wiki-id="wiki:syntax">syntax</a> for Wiki syntax. Please edit the page only if you can <strong>improve</strong> it. If you want to test some things, learn to make your first steps on the <a href="/playground:playground" class="wikilink1" title="playground:playground" data-wiki-id="playground:playground">playground</a>. </p> <div class="editBox" role="application"><div class="toolbar group"><div id="tool__bar" class="tool__bar"><a href="/lib/exe/mediamanager.php?ns=faq" target="_blank">Media Files</a></div></div><div id="draft__status" class="draft__status"></div><form id="dw__editform" action="/faq:database?do=edit" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8" class="doku_form"><input type="hidden" name="sectok" value="" /><input type="hidden" name="id" value="faq:database" /><input type="hidden" name="rev" value="0" /><input type="hidden" name="date" value="1551450877" /><input type="hidden" name="prefix" value="." /><input type="hidden" name="suffix" value="" /><input type="hidden" name="changecheck" value="5b2f1a26681e78302ba22ca172e1a802" /><input type="hidden" name="target" value="section" /><textarea name="wikitext" type="textarea" dir="auto" tabindex="1" cols="80" rows="10" id="wiki__text" class="edit">====== How about using a DB? ====== :?: Could DokuWiki use a database instead of text files? :!: It would be possible, but there was a reason for not doing it. [[:DokuWiki]] was designed to hold documentation of all kinds. So what do you do when your database or your web server is down and the documentation to bring it up again is only accessible through this web server or database? Yikes! So DokuWiki stores all this vital information as plain text which is always readable, even if you only have some tape backups left of your beloved server :-). Read on for some more reasons of not using a database. ===== Database vs. Flat File Storage ===== Let's dispel the assumption that a Database Management System (DBMS) is the ideal repository for wiki information. That isn't to say a DBMS is the wrong choice, just to say that it's not the only choice and that using the file system in the way that DokuWiki does is in no way a bad choice for a wiki. Before reading on, remember the characteristics of wiki data: * read often, updated less often * mixed and unstructured text content A file system is an extremely efficient place for storing data. That's where a DBMS is likely to put its data. For simple retrieval a file system should beat the pants off a DBMS. Its quite likely a well constructed DBMS application will cache the results of its common queries in the file system for faster retrieval! Additionally all modern file systems cache frequently accessed files in memory. Reading this data will not even hit the disks anymore. Much of a DokuWiki's work is simple retrieval - get a file and show its contents possibly with some processing. This is very well suited to a file system. Databases excel when dealing with highly structured data and also where small pieces of that data are updated frequently. Wikis aren't like that. Searching a wiki or more properly, indexing a wiki to enable quick searching is an area where DBMS technology can assist a wiki. DokuWiki implements its own indexing by creating a list of every "word" of three or more letters in the wiki. Partial searching is slower than it would be with a DB and it is more difficult to handle "advanced searches", however for whole word searching it is a viable solution (i.e. the results are presented in a reasonable time when compared to other activities on the wiki). For a public wiki it's arguable that Google provides a better indexing service than any internal search could. A DBMS can make it easier to cross the single server threshold. At its simplest, the DBMS is placed on one box and the web server / application component on another. It's arguable that DokuWiki could accomplish something similar by using NFS mounts to allow multiple locally remote (i.e. LAN connected) servers to access the wiki data directory tree. For very large installations where the data will have to reside on multiple servers, instead of solving replication/synchronization issues the application can hand them off to a suitable DBMS. Filesystem storage has other advantages as well. Because there is only one service (Webserver) instead of two (DBMS + Webserver) that has to be run on the server, installing the wiki is easier, the server requirements are lower and the fault tolerance is higher. Backing up and restoring your data or moving the wiki to a different server is just a matter of copying files. Having your wiki data available in the file system makes it also easier to read or manipulate it with other tools or scripts. **See also:** * [[http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/FlatFileAdvantages|PMWiki documentation on flat file advantages]] * [[devel:scalability|Scalability and Performance]] ===== Accessing Database Content ===== Even though DokuWiki does not use a database, you can access data stored in a database. * DokuWiki has built-in support for accessing user authentication information in a database. See [[:auth|authentication backends]]. * The [[plugin:data]] plugin adds structured data to your pages leveraging a SQLite database * Check out plugins tagged with [[plugintag>database]] for plugins to access database contents</textarea><div id="wiki__editbar" class="editBar"><div id="size__ctl"></div><div class="editButtons"><div id="plugin__captcha_wrapper"><input type="hidden" name="1cef417f0c97fcc9ed2be27d01cdf85a" value="gVHnAPdtMezjm4RzNW/T8hRXZScFjbjr8iOtq35Id4s=" /><label for="plugin__captcha">Please fill all the letters into the box to prove you're human.</label> K H J Z S <input type="text" size="5" name="113adff38158c7723e69369b89a71e93" class="edit" /> <label class="no">Please keep this field empty: <input type="text" name="2ee228b6832820fbea5565393fe331ee" /></label></div><button name="do[save]" value="1" type="submit" accesskey="s" tabindex="4" id="edbtn__save">Save</button><button name="do[preview]" value="1" type="submit" accesskey="p" tabindex="5" id="edbtn__preview">Preview</button><button name="do[cancel]" value="1" type="submit" tabindex="6">Cancel</button></div><div class="summary"><label for="edit__summary" class="nowrap"> <span>Edit summary</span> <input name="summary" type="text" size="50" tabindex="2" id="edit__summary" class="edit" value="" /> </label></div></div><div class="license">Note: By editing this page you agree to license your content under the following license: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en" rel="license" class="urlextern">CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International</a></div></form></div>  </div> <div class="docInfo"><bdi>faq/database.txt</bdi> · Last modified: <time datetime="2019-03-01T15:34:37+0100">2019-03-01 15:34</time> by <bdi>andi</bdi></div> <hr class="a11y" /> </div></main>  <nav id="dokuwiki__pagetools" aria-labelledby="dokuwiki__pagetools__heading"> <h3 class="a11y" id="dokuwiki__pagetools__heading">Page Tools</h3> <div class="tools"> <ul> <li class="show"><a href="/faq:database?do=" title="Show page [v]" rel="nofollow" accesskey="v"><span>Show page</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M13 9h5.5L13 3.5V9M6 2h8l6 6v12a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H6a2 2 0 0 1-2-2V4c0-1.11.89-2 2-2m9 16v-2H6v2h9m3-4v-2H6v2h12z"/></svg></a></li><li class="revs"><a href="/faq:database?do=revisions" title="Old revisions [o]" rel="nofollow" accesskey="o"><span>Old revisions</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M11 7v5.11l4.71 2.79.79-1.28-4-2.37V7m0-5C8.97 2 5.91 3.92 4.27 6.77L2 4.5V11h6.5L5.75 8.25C6.96 5.73 9.5 4 12.5 4a7.5 7.5 0 0 1 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 0 0 1-7.5 7.5c-3.27 0-6.03-2.09-7.06-5h-2.1c1.1 4.03 4.77 7 9.16 7 5.24 0 9.5-4.25 9.5-9.5A9.5 9.5 0 0 0 12.5 2z"/></svg></a></li><li class="backlink"><a href="/faq:database?do=backlink" title="Backlinks" rel="nofollow"><span>Backlinks</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" 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otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license: <bdi><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en" rel="license" class="urlextern">CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International</a></bdi></div> <div class="buttons"> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en" rel="license"><img src="/lib/images/license/button/cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International" /></a> <a href="https://www.dokuwiki.org/donate" title="Donate" ><img src="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/button-donate.gif" width="80" height="15" alt="Donate" /></a> <a href="https://php.net" title="Powered by PHP" ><img src="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/button-php.gif" width="80" height="15" alt="Powered by PHP" /></a> <a href="//validator.w3.org/check/referer" title="Valid HTML5" ><img src="/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/button-html5.png" width="80" height="15" alt="Valid HTML5" /></a> <a href="//jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer?profile=css3" 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hidden; display: inline; } #global__header ul, #global__header li { margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.5; } #global__header a { color: #bbb; text-decoration: none; margin-right: 20px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; } #global__header a:hover, #global__header a:active, #global__header a:focus { color: #fff; text-decoration: underline; } #global__header form { float: right; margin: 0 0 0 20px; } #global__header input { background-color: #333; background-image: none; border: 1px solid #bbb; color: #fff; box-shadow: none; border-radius: 2px; margin: 0; line-height: normal; padding: 1px 0 1px 0; height: auto; } #global__header input.button { border: none; color: #bbb; } #global__header input.button:hover, #global__header input.button:active, #global__header input.button:focus { color: #fff; text-decoration: underline; } } /* /@media */ @media only screen and (min-width: 601px) { /* changes specific for www.dokuwiki.org */ #dokuwiki__header { padding-top: 3em; } #dokuwiki__usertools { top: 3em; } /* changes specific for bugs.dokuwiki.org */ div#container div#showtask { top: 40px; } } /* /@media */ @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { body { padding-top: 0; } #global__header { position: static; white-space: normal; overflow: auto; } #global__header form { float: none; display: block; margin: 0 0 .4em; } } /* /@media */ @media print { #global__header { display: none; } } /* /@media */ </style> <div id="global__header"> <h2>Global DokuWiki Links</h2> <form method="get" action="https://search.dokuwiki.org/" target="_top"> <input type="text" name="q" title="Search all DokuWiki sites at once" class="input" /> <input type="submit" title="Search all DokuWiki sites at once" value="Search" class="button" /> </form> <ul> <li><a href="https://download.dokuwiki.org" title="Download the latest release" target="_top">Download</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.dokuwiki.org" title="Read the DokuWiki documentation" 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✎ faq:database [DokuWiki]