Re: databases in composing hypertexts

Gianluigi Rossini wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> does anyone know anything about the existence of systems that build
> hypertext dinamically, searching information in a database?

Is there any other way to do it? I haven't built a hypertext page by hand in 10 years and I've produced thousands of them in that time.

> That's the way a search engine works, but the result is not really an
> hypertext.

I suppose that depends on your definition of hypertext, no? I guess you are saying a search engine hit list is just a menu and therefore linear and therefore not hypertext. But take a look at the ads that show up -- dynamically developed links to "related" materials. Somewhat crude, but certainly an indication of dynamic generation of hypertext links by use of database searching. Or take something like Google's "Groups" search which ends up with a dynamically generated page that links to other pages by date, subject, thread, reply-chain, etc.

> What I'm searching for is a system (or the proposal of
> a system, or anything
> related) that dinamically builds real hypertexts by composing units of
> information stored in a database, with the guidance of user's
> requests.

Well, there are hundreds of "templating" systems out there that take user selected search terms, query a content database, query a formatting database, then dynamically build a page by combining the formatting information with the content information. Sometimes these have fields for links (e.g. next-page, previous-page, etc.) and sometimes they determine the links based on context (e.g. "Exit" buttons that go different places depending on such things as browser history, current location, etc.; or differential page colors or logos depending on current context ...).

> That's for my thesis, I will appreciate any help.

There was a lot of work on this in the medical field in the early 90s, check out the SCAMC proceedings (Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care). Among other things you'll find some of my papers on hypertext/database combinations for the Physicians Desk Reference (it dynamically built pages on various drugs with links to related drugs determined by database fields).

-- 
Jeff