DBMS - December 1995 DBMS - December 1995
by Maurice Frank
The meteoric rise of the World Wide Web (WWW) is one of the defining technology-related events of the mid-1990s. The Web enables almost anyone, especially businesses, to broadcast timely information world wide at minimal cost. At the very least, the Web has augmented the marketing efforts of countless companies, but several major hurdles, including database integration, must be overcome before the Web can effectively support commerce. Several other critical issues, such as security and payment mechanisms, are relevant, but they are beyond the scope of this article.
Most content on the Web consists of static pages written using an editor capable of applying the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) codes that control a Web page's presentation format, including hyperlinks to other pages or Web sites. The emergence of HTML formatting codes that enabled the use of input forms on Web pages triggered efforts to integrate databases and the Web. Instead of being mere information recipients, Web users can now send data to the Web server. Integrating databases also lets Web pages present dynamic information obtained by querying a database. Bidirectional data flow and dynamic output are the essential ingredients that are underlying efforts to make the Web a vehicle for conducting business with customers, and for broadcasting database resident information not only on the Web, but also on internal corporate networks. This article explores various techniques and products that allow Web browsers (the client-side software that accesses and displays Web pages such as Netscape, Mosaic, and others) to exchange data with databases.
While the WWW may be the Internet's best-known (but not the only) medium to publish information for external consumers, it has also become an increasingly common vehicle for distributing data in-house over corporate networks. These so-called "intranets" use Web servers, Web browsers, and HTML documents as a means to publish corporate information such as employee phone lists, policy manuals, events and news alerts, and so forth. Web browsers are simple to learn and use, and more and more people have this skill, so many MIS departments have capitalized on this simple and well-known interface.
The lifeline of Web database integration is the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), a specification for interfacing Web browsers and executable programs running on a Web server. (See http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/overview.html for information on the CGI standard.) CGI is actually not database-specific because CGI programs can do almost anything. A call to a CGI program is encoded into an HTML document, where it usually appears as a hyperlink. Clicking on the link executes the CGI program on the Web server. (See Figure 1.) CGI programs can receive parameters, and most return results that may consist of text (a status message at the very least), graphics, or both. Whatever is returned must be formatted as HTML, and this is one of the key functions of a CGI program.
PERL (Practical Extraction and Report Language) has been a favorite language for CGI programs because it is heavily laden with string-handling features, and it is commonly found in Unix environments where Web servers originated. However, a number of recent products such as WebSite from O'Reilly & Associates Inc. (which I explain in a moment) let developers use other languages like Visual Basic, and they run on Windows NT- and Windows 95-based Web servers. Several Web database integration products also promise to shield developers from the gory details of writing CGI programs, in much the same way as visual programming environments reduce the need to hand-code repetitive screen handling logic in modern applications.
Like almost everything else about the Web, new database integration products seem to appear on a daily basis. (See Table 1.) Classifying them into the following broad categories can help make sense of this dizzying phenomena on:
Although these categories cover the majority of products I discuss in this article, there are sure to be a few that don't fit neatly into this classification, and I would not be surprised if new and unexpected branches emerge rapidly.
Most leading RDBMS vendors released CGI database gateways by mid- to late-1995. These initial products were typically quick-and-dirty efforts to illustrate what was possible, and developers usually had to do a fair amount of programming to implement solutions. Beginning in late 1995 and continuing through 1996, a round of more sophisticated products will replace or supplement the original embryonic tool kits.
The Oracle World Wide Web Interface Kit first appeared on Oracle's Web site (http://www.oracle.com) in February 1995. However, Oracle's Web page introducing the Kit states that "the contents of this kit are not official Oracle products. They are being released in the public domain and we will only be providing very limited support." The Kit consists of five separate programs:
The WOW ("Web-Oracle-Web") Gateway lets developers create CGI gateways using PL/SQL stored programs residing in an Oracle7 database. It is a standalone PL/SQL compiler with extensions for the Web, including database packages for HTML encapsulation. WOW is the only component in the kit developed and supported by Oracle.
The DECOUX Gateway is a Pro*C (the Oracle C compiler) executable that replaces SQL and HTML formatting tags with query results from an Oracle database. Guy Decoux, an Oracle user in France, contributed this program.
The ORAYWWW Gateway, contributed by Arthur Yasinski of the Department of Natural Resources, Canadian Forest Service, Canada, is written in OraPerl and uses PERL commands to browse tables and create HTML forms.
The WORA Gateway is an Oracle Pro*C program that interfaces with an Oracle back-end server. It generates HTML forms by querying the Oracle system tables for information about database objects (views and tables). These forms let users enter query conditions using query fields, check-boxes, and selection lists.
The TSS Demo is a text-indexing and search system written entirely in Oracle7 PL/SQL stored programs, so you can use it with the WOW gateway.
Oracle is readying a new product family called the Oracle WebSystem, and it will include server and client components. The Oracle WebServer lets HTML hyperlinks execute stored procedures in an Oracle7 database. The WebServer product contains three pieces: a Web Listener, a Web Agent, and the Oracle7 database server. The first two sit between the client browser and the Oracle7 DBMS. The Web Listener performs the usual functions of a Web server; that is, listening for page requests, finding the page on the server, returning pages to the client browser, and logging page requests. It also supports CGI programs. The Web Agent is based on Oracle's original WOW Gateway. It invokes Oracle stored procedures and uses PL/SQL programs to convert query results into HTML pages. It is implemented using CGI, so it can work with any Web server, not just Oracle's. A second version of the Oracle WebServer will merge the Agent into the Listener, which is expected to improve its performance. While the full WebServer product includes the workgroup version of Oracle7, customers who already own an Oracle 7.2 or 7.3 server can purchase the Listener and Agent components. Oracle expects to have the Oracle WebServer in production by December 1995.
Oracle has not yet formally announced its client product, the Oracle WebStation, but Joe Pistritto, Oracle's vice president of Internet Products, describes it as a Netscape-like browser that supports loadable objects. These objects can be OLE objects written using Oracle's Power Objects application development environment, or Java applets (I discuss the Java programming system in a moment).
IBM's DB2 World Wide Web Connection is a gateway that integrates Web browsers and HTML forms with IBM's DB2 RDBMS. The gateway consists of two components: a CGI program and macro files that perform mapping of form fields to place holders in a SQL statement. The CGI program submits the SQL query to the DB2 server and formats the result set as HTML. Results can include hyperlinks to other Web pages or sites if a database field contains the URL (Uniform Resource Locator, the "address" of a Web site or Web page). The beta version available at press time does not support HTML tables, but will in the shipping version, which is due at the end of 1995.
The DB2 World Wide Web Connection is a part of IBM's broader Internet Connection product line. Combining the DB2 World Wide Web Connection with IBM's secure servers and clients encrypts all traffic between the Web browser and server, so the user names and passwords necessary to log in to the DB2 server are protected while in transit.
According to Drew Clark, IBM's manager of Inter-Component Marketing for Software Solutions, future versions of the DB2 World Wide Web Connection will support more advanced browser features so that a result set received by a Web browser will launch a desktop productivity application such as IBM's WordPro (a word processor) while passing off the data to that application for subsequent processing. Another direction IBM is exploring is support for DB2's multimedia extensions via the Web gateway. Future releases will also support additional Unix platforms, and possibly Windows NT. The current beta version supports OS/2 and AIX. IBM is also working on a Web gateway for CICS that will support transaction-oriented applications involving mainframe-based DB2 applications.
The DB2 back-end server is not the only part of IBM's efforts to integrate the Web with database applications. While the company has made no formal announcements, IBM's Clark also states that the company is working on extensions to Visual Age, its Smalltalk and C++ development environment that constructs applications from reusable objects. A future version of Visual Age will enable developers to build complete Web applications composed of both HTML forms and the server-based CGI programs necessary to perform customized interactions with a DBMS.
IBM's Web site (http://www.ibm.com -- Technology and Research topic) also demonstrates how the Query By Image Content technology used in IBM's Ultimedia Manager program can permit Web browsers to search a DB2 database for images that look like a sample image. (See my article, "Future Database Technologies Now," DBMS, November 1995, page 52.) Virage Inc. also has a Web-based demonstration of its visual query system at http://www.virage.com.
The Sybase Web site (http://www.sybase.com) offers one utility available for download. The Sybperl program developed by Michael Peppler of ITF Management SA uses PERL to write CGI programs that interface with the Web. The Sybase site includes links to users integrating Sybase databases with the Web.
Sybase is also developing a new product named webSQL, which will bind a Sybase Open Client interface and a PERL interpreter into a Web server. It lets developers embed scripts and SQL statements into HTML documents via a mail-merge paradigm. webSQL monitors page requests sent to a Web server. When it sees a page containing embedded SQL, it preprocesses the page by performing the database query and merging the results into the page. The Web server then continues normal processing of the page by sending it to the client's browser.
This technique can customize Web page content by picking off the Internet user ID from the browser's request and using it to query the database for that customer's preferences (just as pizza delivery chains use caller ID to know that your last order included pepperoni and extra cheese). Sybase claims this approach will be faster than CGI-based integration because it dispenses with CGI executables, a source of overhead. It is also easier to implement because developers need not write and maintain separate CGI programs.
According to Rich Mironov, Sybase's director of Internet Products, webSQL should be in beta by press time, and generally available in early 1996. Sybase has not yet announced which specific Web servers will be supported (Web servers must work with each Web server's API), but Mironov said the company will probably support a wide range of Unix and non-Unix Web servers. webSQL will be available as a separately priced option, and may also be bundled with Sybase SQL Server.
In addition to webSQL, Sybase has other Web products on the drawing boards. One such product is a payments gateway that will interface transactions to multiple payment options. An authoring and deployment product will incorporate Sybase's Gain technology to create Web-enabled client applications. Sybase is also attacking the Web content management problem by applying traditional object management or repository functions to all kinds of files involved in a Web site. This approach will provide management support such as versioning, backup and recovery, and replication of Web files. It will also do things such as verify and update URL links.
Informix currently provides two kits to interface an Informix database with the Web by writing CGI programs in Informix ESQL/C or the Informix 4GL. Both contain collections of functions as well as example programs. In addition to the interface kits, Informix has partnerships with Netscape, Spider Technologies Inc. (which produces an engine that communicates between Web browsers and databases), and Silicon Graphics Inc.'s WebFORCE Web server and software systems.
Illustra Information Technologies markets an object-relational DBMS server that can be extended to support new data types and functions using plug in modules called DataBlades. (See "Object-Relational Hybrids," in the July 1995 issue of DBMS, page 46.) Illustra released a beta version of its first Web DataBlade in March 1995. The Web DataBlade adds a new base data type called an anchor to the Illustra server. An anchor maps an HTML hyperlink to an object in an Illustra database by associating an Illustra data type with a rendering program (Mosaic or a multimedia player application). The DataBlade lets Web browsers initiate SQL queries, and it also formats the query results as HTML pages, including support for HTML tables. Illustra used its Web DataBlade to create a searchable version of the DBMS Buyer's Guide. (See the sidebar, "DBMS on the Web.")
By the end of 1995, Illustra expects to begin shipping version 2 of its Web DataBlade. This will introduce new HTML tags that let developers embed SQL queries in HTML pages. A function added into the Illustra server by the DataBlade will handle parsing of the SQL tags and formatting of results into HTML pages. No CGI program will be required for this phase, so version 2 promises to perform faster and be simpler to implement. It should also be more secure than a CGI script interacting with the database. Illustra's future plans include support for Java (discussed later).
Microsoft has not yet released products to integrate the Web with SQL Server or desktop products (such as Access and Visual FoxPro), or programming languages (such as Visual Basic and Visual C++). However, a new Microsoft Internet Server for Windows NT, code named Gibraltar, will be entering beta by the end of 1995. Microsoft will publish an Internet Server API that lets developers extend the server's functionality. According to Craig Fiebig, Microsoft's group product manager of Internet Servers, Microsoft has already used this API to write an Internet Database Connector. This lets the Web server attach to any ODBC data source, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Access. It is implemented as a DLL that passes queries submitted by an HTML form to the specified data source, and formats the results as HTML. Microsoft has not yet determined if it will package this product as an add-on, or bundle it in the Internet server.
Even before DBMS vendors such as Oracle, IBM, and Informix provide server-specific CGI gateways, a generic gateway called GSQL (Generic SQL) appeared on the Web as early as December 1993. According to documents (see http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/People/jason/pub/ gsql/starthere.html) posted by Jason Ng at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (the original developer of the Mosaic Web browser), "GSQL is a simple Mosaic gateway to SQL databases. It parses a SQL-specification file (called a PROC file) to create a form, and then, with the user-inputs, calls a database back-end program to process the SQL query. The PROC file maps components of the SQL string to widgets (fields, buttons, pull-down menus, and so on) for user input or selection. GSQL is a C program that the HTTP server invokes through a shell script. The gateway comprises two programs: gsql, the form-creation program; and sqlmain, the database back-end program that processes queries."
Web sites without a live link to a DBMS can sneak through a back door by sending Web form data to an e-mail address. You must then parse the e-mail message into values for each field and insert the field values into the database. This less-elegant process can be automated, and it also facilitates human monitoring of the incoming data. Using e-mail without a CGI program does not allow for dynamic Web page generation, but it could allow small companies that rent Web space from a service provider to capture requests for product information, or even orders (assuming secure transmission) from people visiting their Web site.
Several small companies have begun marketing products to integrate popular RDBMSs with the Web. Many vendors support multiple DBMSs using native drivers, ODBC, or both. Space does not permit a detailed examination of every one, but I will describe a representative sample of these products. Table 1 shows more listings.
Three products that integrate Web browsers with ODBC data sources are DataRamp from Working Set Inc. (Lexington, Mass.; http://dataramp.com), dbWeb from Aspect Software Engineering Inc. (Honolulu; http://www.aspectse.com), and Cold Fusion from Allaire, L.L.C. (Minneapolis; http://www.allaire.com). (Do not confuse Aspect's dbWeb with another product named dbWeb from Axone Services & Development SA of Geneva, Switzerland.)
DataRamp lets existing client/server applications written in Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and other programming environments that support ODBC to work over the Internet. It includes both client and server components. Whereas a typical ODBC data source on a LAN is located using a server name, a data source supported by the DataRamp ODBC client uses TCP/IP to access servers anywhere on the Internet via their URLs. DataRamp's ODBC drivers also work on LANs not connected to the Web.
The client component includes a single ODBC driver that supports multiple DBMSs, including Oracle, Sybase SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and several others. Working Set incorporates ODBC drivers from Intersolv, Visigenic, and other sources. It also works with standalone ODBC drivers for those data sources that DataRamp does not support. DataRamp comes in secure versions that use RSA Inc.'s RC4 public key encryption.
Aspect's dbWeb lets Web browsers access data through 32-bit ODBC drivers. It supports insert, update, and delete statements, as well as query-by-example record selection using dynamic SQL, and executing stored procedures. Results can include "SmartLinks" that allow hypertext drill-down navigation within a data source. dbWeb runs on Windows NT as a 32-bit multithreaded Windows NT service.
Cold Fusion lets HTML forms access databases by introducing new markup tags to control dynamic page generation. These tags, which Allaire refers to as DBML (Database Markup Language), contain SQL queries and instructions on how to merge query result fields with other HTML text. These SQL queries can contain parameters whose values come from form entries, or from a URL or a CGI environment parameter. Developers need not write their own CGI scripts because Cold Fusion provides a single generic CGI executable that interprets the DBML tags and interacts with the Web and database servers. The product also relies on 32-bit ODBC drivers for database access.
Because text makes up most of the content on the Web, text and document DBMS vendors have developed new products that make their databases accessible to Web browsers. Virtually all vendors emphasize flexible full-text searching backed by specialized indexes. Verity Inc.'s Topic Internet Server supports full text searches of documents stored in Topic collections (databases) via HTML forms. The Topic Internet Server communicates with standard Web servers through a customizable gateway program. Folio Corp.'s Infobase Web Server for Windows NT lets Web browsers access Folio Views 3.1 Infobases. The Server translates Infobases into HTML on the fly, and administrators do not have to alter the Infobase to support Web access. Examples of other text and document DBMS vendors with products that let Web browsers access their databases include Fulcrum Technologies Inc., Electronic Book Technologies (EBT) Inc., and Excalibur Technologies Corp. Verity and EBT also provide ways to integrate Web and CD-ROM publishing.
In a similar vein, Lotus Notes users can make Notes documents accessible to Web browsers using Lotus' InterNotes Web Publisher, a Notes server program that automatically converts Notes documents and databases into HTML. It can create HTML files based on Notes Views (a report that lists multiple documents, usually as a hierarchical outline), which lets the Web browser follow the same navigational paths that a Notes user would see. New Notes documents are made available to Web browsers automatically. Because of the replication built into Notes, authors of documents published over the Web can be widely dispersed.
Version 1.0 of the InterNotes Web Publisher began shipping in May 1995. Lotus is readying version 2.0 now, which will support interactive forms that let users submit information into Notes databases, full-text searches, segmentation of large views with next and previous navigation buttons, and more.
Most of the initial efforts to integrate databases and the Web focus on allowing Web browsers such as Netscape to exchange information with back-end databases. A similar wave of activity is just now enabling front-end database applications typically running on desktops or LAN workstations to reach out to the Web.
The PowerSocket Library lets developers "Internet-enable" PowerBuilder applications by accessing a Winsock DLL. Ted and Jason Coombs, a father-and-son team with the Pacific Knowledge Research Foundation (Encinitas, Calif.) created this library and have used it to build a Web server written in PowerBuilder. This application, which uses the library (a .pbl file containing user objects) and about 70 lines of code, stores HTML files in a Watcom database. Although it does not yet generate HTML, it could accomplish this using PowerBuilder's script language. You can download version 2.0 of the PowerSocket Library (a shareware product) from the Coombs' PowerBuilder Interactive home page (http://www.pk.com:80/PowerBuilder), or from the Component Exchange on Powersoft's home page (http://www.powersoft.com). This technology is still immature, but it illustrates how application development tools and the programs they create will hook into the Internet. Visual Basic and Delphi are also sure to become hotbeds of Web database application development.
Microrim is developing a product called R:WEB that works with R:BASE, Microrim's desktop relational database and application development system. R:WEB converts R:BASE forms into HTML Web forms that interact with R:BASE databases and ODBC data sources. R:WEB runs on a Windows NT server alongside R:BASE and a Web server. R:WEB is compatible with HTTP 1.0 Web servers and HTML 2.0 Web browsers. It requires forms created using R:BASE 5.5, which is a new version of R:BASE (released at Comdex in November 1995).
R:WEB forms can perform real-time SQL select queries as well as insert, update, and delete operations. When a user clicks on a hyperlink that invokes an R:WEB form, R:WEB connects to the database and displays the R:BASE form as an HTML form. Users complete and submit the form, and R:WEB handles the interaction with the R:BASE database (or an ODBC data source). R:WEB converts query results into HTML pages.
An R:WEB form can use several, but not all, of the controls supported by R:BASE 5.5 forms, because the HTML specification does not mimic all form controls found in desktop applications. Supported controls include column fields, variable fields, text objects, page titles, custom push buttons, images, horizontal lines, non-editable combo boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, and field passwords. R:WEB forms also support hyperlinks to other URLs and background wallpaper. When a form with a hyperlink runs in a traditional desktop application, the hyperlink is disabled.
Crystal Computer Services Inc. (a Seagate Software Company) is planning to enhance Crystal Reports, its popular database report writer, to generate HTML files from existing reports. A new export format will let users send report output to an HTML file that can be incorporated into a Web site. Like any other report, these HTML files are point-in-time snapshots of the database. A second technique provides real-time database access using CGI hyperlinks. Clicking on a link launches a Crystal program that runs a report with HTML output. These CGI links will be able to pass parameters to Crystal's report engine. They may also display HTML forms to prompt for parameters.
Both methods rely on Crystal's ability to use new DLLs that extend its functionality. A key task is the mapping of report objects to HTML styles. This will be based on the band (title, summary, body line, and so on), and the report object's format and style attributes. A large font size may be mapped to an HTML heading style such as H1 (heading level 1) or H2. Users will also be able to encode HTML styles and hyperlinks by using new report functions in the expression builder. Crystal's HTML reporting technology was in beta at press time. It is expected to be available by late 1995 or early 1996. At press time, the company had still not decided on some features, such as support for HTML tables.
Eventually, other report writers will support HTML as an output format, but I am currently unaware of any announcements or plans. Until more streamlined support appears, any report writer that can send output to a plain text file can produce HTML. The developer must wrap each field or expression within appropriate HTML codes. However, unlike Crystal's HTML mapping technique, this hand-crafted approach requires separate reports for HTML and other output destinations.
Vendors of Web servers and browsers are also taking steps to simplify database access through the Web. One example of a Web server catering to the needs of desktop developers is WebSite from O'Reilly & Associates (Sebastopol, Calif.; http://website.ora.com). WebSite is a 32-bit Web server that runs on Windows NT and Windows 95. It includes a Windows CGI that lets developers use languages such as Visual Basic in addition to PERL, on which most Unix-based Web servers rely. WebSite can interact with desktop applications such as Microsoft Access or Excel.
On the client site, the most talked-about development is Java, a new programming environment from Sun Microsystems Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.; http://www.sun.com). Java lets Web developers create functionality that is not constrained by the limits of the Web browser or the HTML language. Developers use the Java language to write "applets" that reside on a Web server. A Java-enabled Web browser downloads these applets on the fly, and the applet runs on the client machine. Sun is developing its own browser named HotJava. Netscape 2.0 will support Java applications, and it is likely that every other browser will eventually do so.
Java is designed to produce applets that can run on multiple hardware and software environments. The Java language is a subset of C++ that retains the look and feel of C, but deletes some of its complex or redundant aspects. Java is an object-oriented system that supports classes, inheritance, methods, polymorphism, dynamic binding, and other object-oriented features. Java is not database specific, but it can be applied to database problems, especially those requiring visual representation of data and extensive interactive manipulation of data.
Netscape, one of the most popular Web browsers, has announced two new products named LiveWire and LiveWire Pro, two visual development environments for creating and deploying online applications. The Pro version incorporates the Rogue Wave database libraries into the Netscape scripting language. The first release of LiveWire Pro uses Rogue Wave Software, Inc.'s (Corvallis, Oregon) native drivers for Oracle, Sybase SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Informix. A future version will add support for ODBC, which Rogue Wave already supports. The Pro version of LiveWire will also bundle an unlimited license developer version of a SQL RDBMS server to enable developers to test Web database applications without accessing a production server. At press time, Netscape could not name the DBMS it will bundle because its contract negotiations with the vendor were not completed.
The Netscape scripting language works on both the Netscape client browser and in applications that reside on the Netscape Web server. An HTML page can include Netscape script commands that make database requests incorporating data that the user entered via an HTML form. This request is sent by the browser to the server, and the server uses the LiveWire Pro application to convert the request into a SQL query that is sent to the database. When the server receives the query results, it formats them into an HTML table and sends them to the client browser.
The WWW is a new environment for disseminating database information and running database applications. As a new model, it is reminiscent of the emergence of LANs in the 1980s and client/server architectures in the early '90s. Like these earlier technology waves, the Web is also spurring the development of new and revised tools and approaches to making database information available to users and customers. As Web technology and practices mature, integration of databases and applications is sure to play an expanding role. I suspect that two to three years from now, it will seem commonplace, and within five years it will be taken for granted as part of the corporate database woodwork. There are several ways to get started now.
Product/Company; Product Type and Description
askSam/askSam Systems, Perry, Fla.; 800-800-1997; 904-584-6590; http://www.asksam.com
Version 3.0 of this text DBMS adds support for importing and exporting HTML
files into an askSam database.
Cold Fusion/Allaire, L.L.C., Minneapolis, Minn.; 612-831-1808; http://www.allaire.com
Enables SQL queries by using specialized HTML tags. Uses ODBC.
Concordance/Dataflight Software Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.; 800-421-8398; 310-471-3414; http://www.dataflight.com
A text DBMS with Web publishing features. Concordance can retrieve full-text
and fixed-field data stored locally, on a LAN or CD-ROM, remotely over the Internet, or at remote locations
through a WAN.
Crystal Reports/Crystal Services Inc. (a Seagate Software co.), Vancouver, BC, Canada; 604-681-3435; http://www.seagate.com/software/crystal
A report writer enhanced to export reports as HTML pages, and to integrate with CGI programs so reports can be executed from HTML hyperlinks.
DataRamp/Working Set Inc., Lexington, Mass.; 617-863-2339; http://DataRamp.com
Provides access to ODBC data sources over the Web. Includes server and client components
in secure (RSA encryption) or "clear" versions.
Dataware Internet Server/Dataware Technologies Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; 617-621-0820; http://www.dataware.com
A gateway that lets Web browsers search Dataware's BRS/Search DBMS (including
databases stored on CD-ROM) without any conversion required.
DB2 World Wide Web Connection/IBM Corp., Somers, N.Y.; 800-426-3333; 520-574-4600; http://www.ibm.com
A gateway that integrates Web browsers and HTML forms with IBM's DB2 RDBMS.
dbWeb/Aspect Software Engineering Inc., Honolulu; 808-539-3781; http://www.aspectse.com
A gateway using 32-bit ODBC data sources. Also supports Microsoft SQL Server 4.2
and 6.0, Sybase SQL Server 4.2 Oracle version 6 and Oracle7.
dbWeb/Axone Services & Development SA, Geneva, Switzerland; +41 (22) 342 93 66; http://www.axone.ch
An HTML authoring environment based on Microsoft Access and Visual Basic. It lets
Web authors create or generate HTML documents that can be stored in a database or placed on a Web server.
DynaWeb/Electronic Book Technologies Inc., Providence, R.I.; 401-421-9550; http://www.ebt.com
DynaWeb lets Web browsers search and retrieve documents stored in EBT's DynaText electronic
book collections. EBT also markets DynaBase, a document repository built on Object Design Inc.'s ObjectStore.
Electronic Workforce/Edify Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.; 800-944-0056; 408-982-2000; http://www.edify.com
Enables Web browsers to use software agents that collect and return data
from Btrieve, CA-Ingres, IBM DB2, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase SQL Server databases.
Hype-It 1000, Hype-It 2000, Hype-It 3000/Cykic Software Inc., San Diego, Calif.; 800-295-4295; 619-220-7970; http://www.cykic.com
A Web server written as an application in Cykic's MultiBase, a relational database and multitasking operating system that supports Xbase programs.
Informix-ESQL/C CGI Interface Kit; Informix-4GL Interface Kit/Informix Software Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.; 800-331-1763; 415-926-6300; http://www.informix.com
CGI Libraries that let developers write CGI interfaces to Informix databases.
Java/Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, Calif.; 800-821-4643; 415-960-1300; http://www.sun.com
Java lets developers extend the functionality of Web browsers by writing applications
a browser can download and execute on the client machine.
KE Texhtml Web Server/Knowledge Engineering Pty Ltd., Carlton, VIC, Australia; +61-3-9347-8844; http://www.ke.com.au
A gateway to Knowledge Engineering's KE Texpress ODBMS.
LivePage/The Information Atrium Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; 519-885-2181; http://www.inforium.com/inforium.htm
Stores HTML documents in an Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, or Watcom database.
Includes tools to administer, update, and browse LivePage documents stored in SQL databases.
LiveWire and LiveWire Pro/Netscape Communications Corp., Mountain View, Calif.; 415-528-2555; http://www.netscape.com
Web application development tools. The Pro version incorporates the Rogue Wave database libraries into the Netscape scripting language, so Web browsers can query Informix, Oracle, Sybase,
and Microsoft databases. (A future version will support ODBC data sources.)
O2Web/O2 Technology, Palo Alto, Calif.; 415-842-7000; http://www.o2tech.com
A gateway that lets Web browsers access text, multimedia, and complex data from O2's ODBMS.
R:WEB/Microrim, Bellevue, Wash.; 800-628-6990; 206-649-9500; http://www.microrim.com
Add-on to R:BASE 5.5 desktop RDBMS. Converts R:BASE forms to HTML and interacts with R:BASE and other ODBC data sources.
Sapphire/Web/Bluestone Inc., Mt. Laurel, N.J.; 609-727-4600; http://www.bluestone.com
Visually creates CGI programs in C or C++ to access Oracle, Sybase, and Informix databases from Web browsers.
Spider/Spider Technologies Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.; 415-969-6665; http://www.w3spider.com
The Spider Development module visually relates HTML form fields to database fields, executes Spider applications, and interacts with an Informix, Oracle, or Sybase DBMS and a Web server.
Sybperl/Sybase Inc., Emeryville, Calif.; 800-8-SYBASE; 510-922-3500; http://www.sybase.com
Uses PERL as the CGI scripting language to connect a Web browser to a Sybase database.
Tango/EveryWare Development Corp., Mississauga, Ontario Canada; 905-819-1173; http://www.everyware.com
A CGI that integrates Butler SQL with StarNine's WebSTAR Web server, plus a visual editor that creates Web pages that lets you access Butler SQL without writing SQL or HTML code. (An upcoming version will support ODBC access to other data sources.)
Web DataBlade/Illustra Information Technologies Inc., Oakland, Calif.; 510-652-8000; http://www.illustra.com
An add-in that integrates Illustra's object-relational DBMS with Web servers. (Illustra's Web site has a searchable version of the DBMS Buyer's Guide.)
WebDBC/Nomad Development Corp., Seattle; 206-448-1956; http://www.ndev.com
CGI gateway using ODBC to pass queries to SQL DBMSs.
WebQuest/Questar Microsystems Inc., Woodinville, Wash.; 800-925-2140; 206-487-2627; http://www.questar.com
A Web server with built-in support for accessing ODBC and SQL data sources.
WebSite/O'Reilly & Associates Inc., Sebatospol, Calif.; 800-998-9938; 707-829-0515; http://website.ora.com
Web server that supports Visual Basic for CGI programs that interact with ODBC data sources and other desktop products.
World Wide Web Interface Kit/Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif.; 415-506-7000; http://www.oracle.com
A collection of five programs for writing CGI interfaces between Oracle databases and Web browsers.
The Resource page on the DBMS Web site (http://www.dbmsmag.com) has links to all vendors listed here, and the resource guide is updated frequently.
One of the most popular sections on the DBMS Web site (http://www.dbmsmag.com) is the full text of the DBMS Buyer's Guide and Client/Server Sourcebook. It describes more than 875 client/server database products, which are accessible by category, company, and product name. As valuable as it is, however, our first online version lacked one essential feature: full-text searches. Illustra Information Technologies Inc. uses its Web and Text DataBlades, extensions to the Illustra object-relational DBMS server, to add this capability to a second incarnation of the Buyer's Guide at Illustra's Web site (http://www.illustra.com).
The product search form provides three text fields for entering product name, company name, or product description criteria. The form also has command buttons to start the search and clear the input fields. Queries are not case-sensitive, and substring searches occur because the Illustra function wraps each criteria string with a leading and trailing "%" SQL wildcard operator. If you enter criteria into two or three fields, they are connected by the and keyword.
Illustra's Text DataBlade performs the full-text search of the Illustra database. The Web DataBlade handles the CGI interaction with the Illustra DBMS, and it formats the results as HTML tables and sends the page to the user's Web browser. The query result page (see Figure A) displays the product name, company, and category. The product name is a hyperlink to the full description of the product, which is also obtained by a dynamic query. Depending on the query criteria, the products listed can be from multiple companies and cross multiple product categories. The results page also has a drop-down list box displaying the server function that produced the results, as well as a hyperlink to another page that describes the database schema.
In addition to its product search option, the Illustra version of the DBMS Buyer's Guide reproduces the original category and company listings. However, unlike our original version, which uses static HTML pages (generated from a FoxPro database using a few simple FoxPro programs), all pages displayed by the Illustra version are dynamically generated as query results returned by the Illustra DBMS. When Illustra's Web DataBlade formats the results into HTML pages, it creates hyperlinks for each category name, and these hyperlinks execute another CGI program (along with the category name) as a parameter. (Our static pages use hyperlinks to predefined HTML file names.)
The Illustra server also uses its select rules, which are like triggers, to log all queries in a system table. Another script retrieves up-to-the-minute statistics and formats them as HTML tables.
Illustra's implementation of the DBMS Buyer's Guide demonstrates how Illustra's Web and Text DataBlades enable form-driven full-text searches of a database, and dynamic formatting of query results as HTML pages. Illustra's other DataBlades for graphic and multimedia data can also integrate complex data types with Web servers and browsers. -- Maurice Frank
Illustra Information Technologies, Inc. 1111 Broadway, 20th Floor, Oakland, CA 94607; 510-652-8000 or fax 510-869-6388; http://www.illustra.com
As we've seen in this feature article on integrating database applications with the Internet, more and more organizations are hooking up to the WWW, not only to access information, but also for competitive advantage. Therefore, the next logical step for businesses -- especially those businesses that rely on order-
intensive, vertical applications such as manufacturing, stock trading, finance, and insurance -- is to make this link dynamic. In other words, businesses must expand their presences on the Web from simple read-only pages to order forms and documents that can automatically feed information (input by Web-enabled customers) to in-house corporate applications and data stores. This new paradigm has been called "electronic commerce" because it implies that customers can use the Internet to get business done, whether it's to order a certain item, conduct personal banking or stock trades, or so on.
"Electronic commerce is really the wave of the future," said David Harris, vice president of Marketing at SBT Corp., an accounting software manufacturer. The first accounting software provider to recognize the potential of electronic commerce, SBT now provides its Pro Series 3.0i. This suite of products falls perfectly into this category, because it enables organizations to "Internet-enable" their Web page forms to feed data that is input by their customers directly into their accounting database. The data captured by the Internet-enabled sales orders and other form templates is electronically fed into the Pro Series accounting software.
Pro Series 3.0i is composed of two Internet Modules: WebTrader and WebStreet. WebTrader Storefront provides a set of templates in which developers can drop an organization's logo, product shots, and so on. The templates then generate a personalized Web page. The WebTrader Templates include templates for one storefront home page, templates for seven additional subpages, and links and icons to connect pages, copy, and images.
To track the Internet business generated by the "storefront" and subpages, Pro Series offers WebTrader Storeforms. These forms automatically parse and download sales and other customer data directly into a Pro Series-based accounting database. The WebTrader Forms include one template for a Sales Orders form, one template for Inquiry/Lead forms, and one template for Customer Surveys.
If an organization does not have its own Internet server or doesn't want to pay for a service provider, WebStreet provides a server site free for one year as well as a storefront in SBT's business mall, business1.com. This site offers 10MB of storage, which is enough room for approximately 150 subpages or 75 images of 10-15K each, says Harris. In addition, SBT provides 24 X 7 service and support, as well as homepage backup and data retrieval.
Using this type of product, organizations can take advantage of the Internet to reach and serve more customers, more quickly, and more efficiently. In addition, software agent technology can be used to automate business tasks when a Web user takes an action at a Web site. DBMS will follow this burgeoning market closely in the next few months, so watch out for special previews. -- Theresa Rigney
SBT Corp. 1401 Los Gamos Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903; 800-944-1000, 415-444-9900, or fax 415-444-9901; http://www.sbt.com.
A Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program can interact with a DBMS to pass data into a database and return data from the database to the Web browser as a formatted HTML file. Developers can write CGI programs in many languages (PERL and C are popular), and these programs can reside on the same machine as a Web server, or elsewhere on a network.
Illustra's Web DataBlade formats query results into HTML tables. The product names have hyperlinks that execute queries to display each product description. The results page also displays the query processed by the Illustra DBMS.
