CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#mysql
brux
brux

Reputation: 3230

mysql db as an alternative to socket programming?

Is it bad practice to use a mysql database running on some remote server as a means of interfacing 2 remote computers? For example having box1 poll on a specific row of the remote db checking for values posted by box2, when box2 posts some value box1 carries out a,b,c. Thanks for any advice.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 771

Answers (4)

Karoly Horvath
Karoly Horvath

Reputation: 96258

If there are only 2 computers (sender-receiver), then it is bad practice if you need fast response times. Otherwise it's fine... direct socket connection would be better, but don't waste time on it if you don't really need it.

On the other hand if there are more than two machines and/or you need fault tolerance then you actually need a middleman. Depending of the signalling you want between the machines the middleman can be a simple key-value store (e.g.: memcached, redis) or a message queue (e.g.: a dedicated message queue sofware, but I have seen MySQL used as a Queue at two different sites with big traffic)

Upvotes: 1

Ben Hoffstein
Ben Hoffstein

Reputation: 103325

Consider using something like ZeroMQ, which is an easy-to-use abstraction over sockets with bindings for most languages. There is some nice intro documentation as well as many examples of various patterns you can use in your application.

I can understand the temptation of using a database for this, but the idea of continually writing/polling simply to signal between clients wastes IO, ties up connections, etc. and, more importantly, seems like it would difficult to understand/debug by another person (or yourself in two years).

Upvotes: 4

Tejs
Tejs

Reputation: 41236

Yes?

You're obfuscating the point of your code by placing a middleman in the situation. It sounds like you're trying to use something you know to do something you don't know. That's pretty normal, because then the problem seems solvable.

Upvotes: 3

Lou Franco
Lou Franco

Reputation: 89172

You can. If you were building something complex, I would caution against it, but it's fine -- you need to deal with having items being done only once, but that's not that difficult.

What you are doing is known as a message queue and there are open-source projects specific to that -- including some built on MySql.

Upvotes: 3

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