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Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.misc -> Re: Web Development Tools
Lisa,
I am doing exactly that type of thing at the phone company that I am consulting
to.
And I'm very, very pleased with the tools and results of our chosen methods.
So, I'll describe it all to you, but it may be much more than you're hoping to
get into for this one project.
I set up a full Intranet for the company, which did not have one at all yet. There were no internal web pages at all, and everyone actually accessed the Web via modems from their offices.
They had no global data management scheme, and were handling all of their data on either antiquated SCO-Unix flat-file systems, or locally to each department in Excel spreadsheets. (* Arrrrggggh! *)
So, I proposed a complete "entry-level" hardware/database/software solution to provide a "proof-of-concept".
So we purchased a SUN server and Oracle 8 and got it all setup. I felt that this company was an ideal candidate for an intranet-based way of interacting with a global, centralized, data-warehouse.
In order to write Database interactive Web Pages you need to either, write CGI/Perl intensive web pages, and let the CGI/Perl handle back-end communication with the database for you; or learn and make use of the Oracle Web Application server extension; or employ Server-Side JavaScript (SSJS) web pages to interact directly with the database.
After taking a long, hard look at these methods, I decided that the SSJS method looked easier and clearer. I'd never written Perl scripts to a database before, and found the learning curve to be daunting. The Oracle Web Application server, simply made my head spin in terms of "visualizing" how to make it work for a big project. Both learning curves just seemed too big for the time-frame in which I needed to show working results at a company where most of what I was suggesting already sounded like "VooDoo" to them.
SSJS just looked alot more "accessible" to me.
However, in order to handle SSJS projects, you need an SSJS supporting Web Server, and thus we purchased and installed Netscape's Enterprise Server on our new SUN server. (1 part of the SuiteSpot package.)
Now, I am authoring fully Oracle interactive Intranet Web Pages for the company, that anybody can access from any machine, and they are just as fast as the browser can run on their Windows/Mac machines, and as fast as my SQL Queries and Stored Procedures and DB designs on the SUN server are effectively coded.
We're generating tables and reports for databases that are gong to be 40 Gig or larger, with excellent results. Speed, is not an issue.
The more I learn about SSJS and Web Design, the faster and eaiser it is becoming to create whole new projects for each department, making extensive use of my already working routines from another department's internal web site.
So... in summary, here's the configuration we initially setup:
Server:
Database:
Web Server:
Now that I've begun to prove and show how this all works and how very cool it is to have whole working "applications" in a web browser, and a centralized database, they're warming up to the larger "vision", of a global intranet and a completely centralized data warehouse.
So pretty soon, we'll be separating the Oracle server and the Web server, leaving all Web & Messaging related stuff on the little E-450, and moving all Oracle activity to a SUN E-4500 data warehouse server. (My next big idea! *Grin*)
It's a kick-ass way to do things, but it does require a setup in some way similar to this. However, JavaScript is quickly becoming a very vigorous standard and I expect it to grow quickly as a back-end tool.
Now, a mental note... all of this same, exact setup could be done with Microsoft SQL Server and Netsacpe Enterprise Manager on an NT Server. Doesn't have to be UNIX/Oracle. Your preference.
Total cost:
Um... if that's not alot more than you ever needed or wanted to know about web based interfaces to a database... I at least hope it helps! *grin*
Please feel to write me if I can be of any more info.
Regards,
James Arvigo
DBA / Programmer / Intranet Developer
Austin/San Marcos, TX
jamesa_at_NOSPAM.thriftycall.com
(remove NOSPAM to write me)
Lisa Belanger wrote:
> My boss has asked me to look into writing a new application for one of the
> departments in my company. He left the option open to me to decide if I
> want to make this a web based application or a windows base app. So the
> question to you is do you know of any web development tools which will aid
> me in connecting to a database maybe using ODBC?? I would like to make forms
> and reports which connect to an oracle db. I know how to make Active server
> pages through MS Access but I think it is too slow. Any Suggestions.
>
> Thanks
> Lisa
Received on Wed Jul 29 1998 - 01:11:07 CDT
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