HTML 4.0 Sourcebook
(Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
Author(s): Ian S. Graham
ISBN: 0471257249
Publication Date: 04/01/98

WWWWAIS

www.eit.com/software/wwwwais/wwwwais.html

www.eit.com/software/wwwwais/

WWWAIS, by Kevin Hughes, is a small ANSI C program that acts as gateway between waisq and waissearch (the WAIS programs that search WAIS indexes) and a forms-capable browser. WWWWAIS supports customized form interfaces and a database access control mechanism (restricting access to certain Internet domains) and allows users to choose from amongst multiple searchable databases. As with the previously mentioned packages, WWWWAIS returns the search results as a hypertext document.

SQL Gateways

There are many packages for linking Web servers to commercial SQL database packages such as Oracle or Sybase. The following section lists public-domain packages. Most commercial vendors also provide gateway software, and you should consult with your vendor to obtain up-to-date information on their offerings.

GSQL Gateway

www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/People/jason/pub/gsql/starthere.html

GSQL, by Jason Ng, is a C program invoked from the HTTP server via a shell script. GSQL is a simple gateway to Sybase or other SQL databases. It parses an SQL-specification file (called a PROC file) to create an HTML form, and uses the user form input to call the database back-end program to process the SQL query. Search query results are then returned to the client. The PROC file maps components of the SQL string to widgets (fields, buttons, pull-down menus, etc.) for user input or selection. This is an older package (circa 1994) but still useful and simple to implement.

GSQL-Oracle Backend

ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gvu/www/pitkow/gsql-oracle/oracle-backend.html

GSQL-Oracle Backend, by James Pitkow, is a CGI program for linking WWW applications to an Oracle database, using either ISINDEX or form interfaces. GSQL-Oracle Backend is written in PRO-C, the C language development environment for Oracle, so you need this development option to compile the software. The package comes with installation instructions and compiles easily on most UNIX machines.

Web/Genera

gdbdoc.gdb.org/letovsky/genera/

Web/Genera, by Stanley Letovsky, is a software toolset for integrating Sybase databases into the World Wide Web. Web/Genera can be used to retrofit a Web front-end (FORM or ISINDEX) to an existing Sybase database or to create customized interfaces. To use Web/Genera, you write a specification of the Sybase database and of the desired appearance of its contents on the Web, using a simple high-level schema notation. Various Web/Genera programs process this description file to generate SQL commands and formatting instructions, that together extract objects from your database and format them into HTML. Note that this package has not been updated since early 1996 and is not being actively maintained.

WDB—Sybase, mSQL, and Informix Gateway

arch-http.hq.eso.org/bfrasmus/wdb/wdb.html

www.dtv.dk/~bfr/wdb/intro.html

WDB, by Bo Frese Rasmussen, is a CGI package similar to Web/Genera and also based on perl and sybperl. Like Web/Genera, WDB allows you to use high-level description files to specify the structure of the database and the format of the responses, so that you can construct a generic WWW-SQL interface without writing a single line of code. Notable is the ability to turn data from the database into hypertext links, so that it is possible to access any database element directly via a URL. This package was last updated in the summer of 1996 and is not being actively maintained.

W3-mSQL

www.Hughes.com.au/

W3-mSQL, a product of Hughes Technologies of Australia, is a gateway to mini-SQL databases from World Wide Web documents. W3-mSQL is a single CGI program that provides full Web access to data stored within mini-SQL databases. The software is free for noncommercial uses and is being actively maintained.

Perl Database Interface Libraries

ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/perl/db/

ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/perl/db/README

There are many freeware perl interfaces to common commercial database systems. The URL identified here is an archive site of such software, where the README file provides an overview of the site content. This is an ideal place for locating freeware database interface libraries, which you can use along with a CGI library to create Web database applications.

References

General Starting Points

www.yahoo.com/text/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/CGI_ _ _Common_Gateway_Interface/

CGI Programmer’s Reference and FAQs

Server-Side Includes

On-line CGI and FORM Tutorials

CGI Program Archive Sites

Database-Web Gateway References