One of the most popular types of website is the database driven website. A database driven website is essential when the website owner needs to ADD, STORE and RETRIEVE information from the computer.

To add information to the database requires access to the ‘back office’ of the website, usually protected by user access codes. The ‘back office’ is where a lot of technical and management programs are installed. The user adds information on a pre-designed database form and saves this to the database. The database form has exact matching fields in the database.

Most websites have search facilities where the visitor enters a search word or string of words and sets of a search of the website database. You will need a search facility on your database driven website which will allow you to enter search information and retrieve it. The program retrieves the information from the database and displays the search results on the web page each time a search is made.

When the information stored in the database changes, the information on the web pages connected to the database will change automatically.

An example of database driven websites are online banking sites where account holders can log into their bank accounts, by entering their user name and password, to check their bank account details and balances. The bank account information is stored in a database which is connected to the account holder’s web pages, using a secure program, this enables the account holder to see their bank account and carry out personal transactions.

Typical businesses who use databases are travel agents, estate agents, events listing websites and libraries.