pjjTextBase overview

pjjTextBase is a set of powerful yet easy to use 20+ functions that provides a complete management for a simple relational database system, with data kept in industry standard text files (CSV, flat files). With pjjTextBase you can quickly develop a robust database-driven web application: anything from a guestbook, forum, poll etc. to fully-fledged CMS or e-commerce project. pjjTextBase is fast, stable, flexible, Unicode compatible, and comes with detailed documentation (html, pdf and Microsoft Help). Perfect solution if you can't or don't want to use SQL–the only requirement is PHP 4+, making your application very compatible with a variety of hosting plans and instantly deployable by a simple upload of the scripts.

To store data, pjjTextBase uses text files ("flat files"), eg.:

  id|author|title
  1|Agatha Christie|Evil Under The Sun
  2|Arthur Conan Doyle|A Study in Scarlet
  3|Raymond Chandler|Farewell My Lovely

Read more about data file format used by pjjTextBase.

Why not use SQL?

[1] First of all, to use any SQL solution (MySQL, PostgreSQL etc.) you must have access to one. Although this software is free, you may have to pay extra money to your ISP to use it on your website.

[2] With PHP5 comes another possible solution: SQLite. Unfortunately, not many ISPs offer PHP5-rich accounts.

[3] Sometimes you want something lightweight that will make your project fast. Would you use MySQL only to set a simple counter? Probably not. In such a case pjjTextBase could be your best choice.

[4] Databases in simple text-files are easier to maintain: you may use any spreadsheet or Sam Francke's excellent CSV files editor CSVed (it can handle also secured CSV files!). Since flat files are text files, you can even edit them with Notepad!

[5] Lastly, pjjTextBase is easier to learn, since it has just a few functions, so there's no necessity to learn SQL yet.