Organizing a Successful Commercial Internet Site

An InsWeb Sample Application

by Darrell Ticehurst and Keith Hilen

This sidebar is an addendum to the article published in Internet Systems, a supplement to DBMS, May 1996.

In the following sample application, the user is required to enter both a first and last name. Once the names are entered, a verification page is displayed. The user has the option of accepting the entries or modifying them. When the verification page is accepted, a thank you page is generated and displayed.

Three HTML templates are required: Entry, Verification, and Thanks.

The Entry page has the following general appearance:

The HTML template source for this is as follows:

<HTML>

Please enter your name for our records. <P>

First Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="firstname"

VALUE="{entry:firstname}"><P>

Last Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="lastname"

VALUE="{entry:lastname}"><P>

<STRONG>{system:errormsg}</STRONG><P>

</FORM>

</HTML>

Note that there are four tags surrounded by curly braces:

{system:sid}

{entry:firstname}

{entry:lastname}

{system:errormsg}

These tags are replaced with values in the data set at the time the page is generated. system:sid is the session ID which the system uses to match user entry to a particular data set. entry:firstname and entry:lastname are self explanatory. system:errormsg holds optional text describing an error condition.

The first generated screen has the following source:

<HTML>

Please enter your name for our records. <P>

First Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="firstname"

VALUE=""><P>

Last Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="lastname"

VALUE=""><P>

</FORM>

</HTML>

Note that there is no error message, and the first and last name fields are blank. Now assume that the user enters "Fred" into the first name field, leaving the last name blank, and submits the data. The script \cgi-bin\entry receives the data and stores it into the data set. The script then determines that entry:lastname is blank. Based on that, it sets system:errormsg to "You must enter all fields!" and regenerates the same page. The new generated source is as follows:

<HTML>

Please enter your name for our records. <P>

First Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="firstname"

VALUE="Fred"><P>

Last Name: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" MAXLEN="30"

NAME="lastname"

VALUE=""><P>

<STRONG>You must enter all fields!</STRONG><P>

</FORM>

</HTML>

Note that the value "Fred" was placed in the first entry control, and that there is now an error message displayed at the bottom of the form. At the time the page was generated, these fields were extracted from the data set and inserted into the HTML output stream. The user sees this:

Assume the user now correctly enters his last name, "Flintstone" and submits the data. The script now determines that it can proceed, and generates the Verification page. This page looks like this:

The template source is as follows:

<HTML>

Please verify that the following information is correct: <P>

First Name: {entry:firstname}<P>

Last Name: {entry:lastname}<P>

</FORM>

</HTML>

This is expanded to:

<HTML>

Please verify that the following information is correct: <P>

First Name: Fred<P>

Last Name: Flintstone<P>

</FORM>

</HTML>

When the user presses one of the buttons, the script determines which action was taken and either regenerates the entry page or generates the Thank You page. The latter has the following source:

<HTML>

Thanks for registering with us, {entry:firstname}.<P>

</HTML>

Our user sees the following:

Please send questions or comments about this Web site to mfrank@mfi.com
Updated Tuesday, April 9, 1996