Umbraco Database Question- Adding custom tables

Question

I'm working on a site managed by Umbraco. I need to store data about images and clients. I don't think there is any way I can store that data in the existing tables.

Is there any reason I shouldn't add the tables I'll need to the Umbraco database, rather than creating a separate DB? I like Umbraco so far but the documentation is a little thin and I haven't found any suggestions one way or the other.

TIA

Answer 1

I have built a site using Umbraco, with a separate application with a database of vehicles. I used the same database as Umbraco is using, and prefixed all my custom app tables with a few letters to distinguish them easily (eg: vehicles_xxx)

I have had no problems with this arrangement, and don't believe there's much risk involved. Of course you'll need to take care when upgrading Umbraco (never upgrade in the live environment before fully testing, and preferably do it locally anyway), however its unlikely an upgrade script will ever alter or delete any tables that it does not know about.

There's heaps of doco available for umbraco now - much more than when i started.. however a question like this is always best for the forums. :)

all the best greg