Re: web database

Zainal Abidin Shariff Ghazali (erotomania_at_sunot.net) wrote:
> manolis_at_cytanet.com.cy wrote:
> >
> > i am trying to desing a database for a cd shop that will be used on a
> > webserver so that surfers can browse and search the cd titles
> > I have adequate knowledge of windows and UNIX programming.
 

> You have two main options to start with.
 

> 1. Writing CGI scripts to access the dbase from the web. This could be
> done through several scripting languages such as Perl, Java, VB, etc.

or writing CGI programs with traditional languages such as C.

> or
 

> 2. For ODBC databases, you could use ASP (Active Server Page) but must
> be viewed on IE only (no Netscape) or incorporate ActiveX Controls. Or
> you could Java to get connected to a database from the web (but then you
> will have to spent a great amount of time understanding JDBC (Java
> Database Connectivity).

Or if you're not a Microsoft bigot, you could try...

• server side Javascript - Netscape servers only, any browser. Microsoft created ASP in response to this so they have similar functionality: ASP syntax looks like VBscript while server-side Javascript syntax looks like Javascript.
• one of many third party products with similar functionality. I like Sybase Web.SQL but it is only for Sybase.

I would:

1. Decide what you want to use for a database. Any commercial database will do for such a simple task, or even just data files, so I would pick what you are most familiar with or already have.
2. Decide what server and OS you want. Unless this is a commercial site where extreme reliability and and heavy load are important any OS will do so I would pick what you are most familiar with or already have (actually, I wouldn't rely on Windows but NT is adequate). The server may be more of a religious issue, but may be decided by OS: any should do. I'm only familiar with Netscape and IIS, but there are alternatives. I find Netscape servers clearly superior, but those who bow their heads towards Redmond, WA may disagree.
3. Decide what programming language you want to use. This will be limited by the previous choices, but you always have the choice of CGI programming with any programming language you're comfortable with. I have used C, Perl, and shell scripts. If you use Microsoft IIS (especially if you're familiar with VBscript), try ASP. If you use a Netscape server (especially if you're familiar with Javascript), try server-side Javascript. If I had to make the choice, I have never been able to get ASP working on the same machine as ODBC so that's out, I have been trying to avoid server-side Javascript to maintain some sort of platform independence, ActiveX limits choice of browsers, and this task is simple enough to be efficiently done with CGI scripting. Perl would be an excellent choice since it can effectively deal with data files or common RDBMS's, is available for every platform, is free, and has all the advantages of Perl.

Dan

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+----------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Dan Pasto                        | Dan_Pasto_at_ssga.StateStreet.com      |
| State Street Global Advisors     | pasto_at_ssga.StateStreet.com          |
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