template storage question?
 

not sure where this goes but i know you'll be the people to give me the answers i'm in search of?

what are the advantages of storing templates in the database as apposed to storing em on the server as files?

In the database everything is more organised and easier to call etc. Files will get messy and not really the most efficient way to do it (IMO)

Database is faster and easier to back up (it backs up along with posts, users, etc.).

Out of the many template engines out there, vBulletin is about the only I know that stores them in the database.

It's certainly not the only way, and I view storing them on the server is a fine method. The engine I use often for non-vBulletin development is Smarty. Either that, or I create my own-- although my versions lack an adequate caching method.

I would have preferred it more if the vBulletin templates were files, so I could access them in a separate file editor, and not through the admin cp. (like PhpBB) There are also some other inconvienances to having them in the DB.

such as
* sabret00the asks all intruiged?

@filburt: is there any data to show the performance variations between an include() and a MySQL select()?

It's not a straight include...it has to load the file via fopen(), parse it, eval the contents to parse all the variables, parse the replacements, and close it. Several dozen times.

if it does that with the include, what's the process it undertakes using the alternative database methodology?

It can't do the include without some messy coding...:confused: