1.1 A "Common" Website

1.1.1 Preliminary Remark

1.1.2 The World Wide Web

1.1.3 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

1.1.3.1 Forms

1.1.3.2 Version Difficulty

1.1.4 Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

1.1.5 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

1.1.6 Web Server

1.1.7 Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

1.2 Why Databases for the WWW ?

1.2.1 Intranet - Corporate Database Driven Information System

1.2.2 Publishing of Existing Data to the WWW

1.2.3 Development of "Intense Interactiv" Web Applications

2 The Web Database Gateway

2.1 Architecture of the Gateway

2.1.1 Components and Interfaces

2.1.2 CGI Executable

2.1.3 Application Server

2.1.4 Usage of Server APIs

2.1.5 Proprietary Servers

2.1.6 Web Browser Extention through External Viewer

2.1.7 Gateway Architectures with Java

2.1.7.1 Web Browser Extention with Java

2.1.7.2 Server Side Java

2.1.7.2.1 CGI Programs in Java

2.1.7.2.2 Integration of the Java-VM in the Web Server

2.1.7.2.3 Server Extention through Java-"Servlets"

2.1.7.2.4 Application Server in Java

2.2 Database Interface

2.2.1 Native Database Access

2.2.2 ODBC - Open Database Connectivity

2.2.3 JDBC - Java Database Connectivity

2.3 Programming/Development Environment

2.3.1 High-Level Languages vs. Script Languages

2.3.2 Proprietary Server Side Scripting

2.3.3 JavaScript

2.3.3.1 JavaScript on Client Side

2.3.3.2 JavaScript on Server Side

2.4 Study of Available Web Database Gateways

2.4.1 Table of Products

2.4.2 Technical Details

3 The Web Database Application

3.1 Description of the Application

3.1.1 Specification

3.2 Choosing the Gateway

3.3 Short Introduction to Netscape LiveWire

3.3.1 Building and Starting a LiveWire Application

3.3.2 URLs in LiveWire Applications

3.3.3 The LiveWire Object Framework

3.4 Structure of the Database

3.4.1 The Theme Catalog

3.4.2 The Hyperlinks

3.4.3 Cities and Countries

3.5 The Administration Tool

3.5.1 Choice of Themes - Three Frames and Global Functions

3.5.2 Loading Two Frames at the Same Time - JavaScript-Events

3.5.3 Client Side Form Validation with JavaScript

3.5.4 Representation of the Theme Tree - the "database"-Object

3.5.5 Data Exchange Between Server Side and Client Side JavaScript

3.5.6 Database Access with LiveWire - Adding a new Theme

3.5.7 Server Side JavaScript Instead of Stored Procedures

3.5.8 Application Overview

3.6 The Hyperlink Database

3.6.1 Database Connectivity with LiveWire

3.6.2 Links.html - the Central Hyperlink Database Page

3.6.3 The Green Pages

3.6.4 Regional

3.6.5 Form Search

3.7 Installation of the Application

3.7.1 Database

3.7.2 Web Server and LiveWire

3.7.3 The LiveWire Application

4 Upshot

Table of Illustrations

List of Tables

Table of Listings

Table of Literature

Table of WWW Sources

Appendix A: Screen Shots

Appendix B: Source Code

User Application "Linkdb"

Administration Tool "Linkadmin"

Appendix C: Content of enclosed CD