Chapter 8. Database Applications

We have spent the entire book so far discussing the database as if it exists in some sort of vacuum. But it serves its purpose only when being used by other applications. We should therefore take a look at how the database relates to the other elements of a database application before exploring the details of database application development in various languages. This detour examines conceptual issues important not only to programming with MySQL, but to programming with any relational database engine. Our look at database programming covers such complex issues as understanding the basic architectures common to web-oriented database applications and how to map complex programming models into a relational database.