HorseWeb
is a web site that relies extensively on FirstBase
to generate and maintain extremely large sets of web pages.
Some of the web to database applications used to
accomplish this task are outlined below.
Registration Tracking System
HorseWeb needed a formal registration system and contracted with
FirstBase Software to design and implement the Registration Tracking
System. Users enter their email address and maintain their
own selected category lists.
Periodically, HorseWeb runs a
dbmacro
script that
generates a unique piece of email to each recipient.
The custom email message contains only new links (URLs)
that were entered (or modified) inside of HorseWeb since
the last time email was sent to this user.
URL Management System
The URL Management System (UMS) maintains
information about Universal Resource Locators (URLs), or links.
UMS provides a web interface for users to enter their own links, a
web interface for administrators to browse and edit pending links,
an extensive set of generated reference pages, and a
search mechanism that provides separate pages of nicely formatted results.
Purchase UMS for $4995.
UMS consists of a Control database, a Category
database, and a URL database. The Control database
stores global information: company name, font names and colors,
and root directory name used for the generated links pages.
The Category database enumerates all of the Categories needed.
This database is also used to generate a web support file of
category names used in building forms where a Category is selected.
The URL database stores more information about each link:
Site Name, Description, Email Address, City, State, Status, etc.
These URL records can be created by anyone, and can be
modified by using the Email Address, used at create time, as a password.
In this manner the UMS system allows end users to maintain their own
records of link information.
When a record is created or modified (by a non-administrator),
many of the fields are examined for validity, like the URL itself,
and the record is not added if any of these fields is invalid.
When a record is added or modified, UMS sets the Status of the record
to Pending. Then, an administrator looks over the record,
and changes the Status to either online or denied.
Only records that are online are used to generate the
pseudo-static reference pages, and only online records
are search-able using UMS search mechanisms.
In addition to data collection, the UMS system provides a web interface
for database administration, allowing editing, correcting, and
updating of URL records.
From the admin screen, administrators can edit all pending
records, all records from a selected category, or a single URL record.
A live use of the UMS system is available at
Horseweb,
along with the search mechanism and
reference (link) pages,
all generated by UMS.
This application uses the
dbmacro
programming language from FirstBase.
For example,
here
is FirstBase macro code that generates and
populates a modify record form.
As mentioned, the UMS system also includes an HTML interface
for some of the common administration tasks. For example,
here
is FirstBase macro code that generates an
admin report
that itself contains links that pop up single record edit sessions.
The FirstBase macro language can use a database to build forms,
populate an HTML selection button, process and display a few lines
from large text fields, verify fields, lock records, and much,
much more.
Please feel free to try out the demonstration below,
entering, modifying, and searching for URL records.
Jump to the Live Demonstration: URL Management System
