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Making your Web site more dynamic

Making your Web site more dynamic. Andy Powell UKOLN, University of Bath a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk www.ukoln.ac.uk.

judith-holt
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Making your Web site more dynamic

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  1. Making your Web site more dynamic Andy Powell UKOLN, University of Bath a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk www.ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

  2. Overview • ‘dynamic’ means ‘interactive’! • handling Web forms • server-side programming • CGI scripts - Perl, PHP, ASP • client-side programming • Javascript, Java • database connectivity • security • personalisation - authentication, cookies • taster session only… no details, but some pointers to further information.

  3. Aims • by the end of the session you should know what • CGI, • Perl, PHP, ASP, • JavaScript, Java, • ODBC and cookies • are… but you won’t necessarily know how to use them!

  4. Why interact? • registration and requests for information • allow people to register for meetings, ask to be added to mailing lists, ... • feedback and user-surveys • allow people to comment on your library service • dynamic information • allow people to ask questions like... • when are my books due back? • how much is my overdue book going to cost?!

  5. Why interact? (2) • within particular services might want to solicit contributions from people, e.g. • children’s site… allow kids to submit poems or stories • local history site… allow people to contribute personal recollections of a region or period • business/community site… allow people to supply details of local services • library site… allow people to recommend books or CDs, share reading lists, etc.

  6. Simple Web form • <html> • <head><title>simple form</title></head> • <body> • <form name="simpleForm" method="put" action="simpleHandler.cgi"> • Your email address: • <input type="text" name="email"> • <input type="submit" value="Submit"> • </form> • </body> • </html>

  7. Interacting with Web Forms • typically need to generate the form (which may be a normal static Web page), then • validate user input • process user input • generate a response • dynamically. • these three steps may be done within the Web browser (client-side) or within the Web server (server-side) or some combination of both.

  8. CGI • Common Gateway Interface • mechanism for a Web browser to send data to a Web server • allow browser to submit data to a program running on the server • program is often called a ‘CGI script’ • typically written in Perl, PHP or ASP • can also be a ‘real’ program (e.g. written in C)

  9. CGI (2) • used primarily for form submission • can also be used to upload local files • ‘CGI’ URLs often contain ‘?’ and ‘&’ characters - but don’t have to! • output from CGI usually dynamic and therefore not cached

  10. Web form Email Data sent using CGI File Results Database CGI (3) Web browser Web server

  11. CGI programming - Perl • Perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language • developed initially as general purpose (UNIX) utility • freely available on all platforms (though most often used under UNIX) • very good at manipulating textual data • developed at roughly same time as the Web • de facto CGI script language? • interpreted - so fast development cycle

  12. Perl (2) • typically, a new Perl process is started for each new CGI script, so can be heavy(ish) on resources • many modules are freely available to base work on, e.g. CGI, LWP (general Web library), HTML, XML, database connectivity, etc. See CPAN <www.cpan.org> • many existing CGI Perl scripts to crib/steal from

  13. What do I need to do? • install Perl (if you have a UNIX box, chances are that it is already installed!) • install at least the CGI.pm Perl module from CPAN • configure your Web server to recognise files ending in ‘.pl’ (and ‘.cgi’) as Perl programs • buy one of the O’Reilly Perl books • visit <www.perl.org> and <www.perl.com> for tutorials, tips and example code

  14. CGI programming - PHP • PHP - originally stood for Personal Home Pages (I think!), now not expanded • HTML embedded scripting language • PHP commands are embedded into the HTML page • hidden inside HTML comments • freely available - <www.php.net> • very easy to learn • lots of code available

  15. PHP (2) • tight integration with databases - particularly with MySQL (a free relational database) • quick development time for database driven applications • available under UNIX and Windows platforms

  16. What do I need to do? • install PHP, current version is PHP 4.0.1 • configure Web server to recognise files ending in ‘.php’, ‘.php3’ and ‘.php4’ as PHP-enabled pages • buy the O’Reilly PHP book! • visit <uk.php.net> and <www.phpwizard.net> for tutorials and sample code

  17. CGI programming - ASP • ASP - Active Server Pages • developed by Microsoft • HTML embedded scripting language • primarily based on VBScript,. Though can use JavaScript as well • bundled in with MS Web server products, e.g. IIS • free and commercial UNIX version available (though not sure about compatibility) • GUI development tools available

  18. What do I need to do? • if you are using Microsoft Web server... nothing! It should all be ready to go. • If you are using a UNIX-based server, use Perl or PHP! • check your Microsoft documentation • visit <www.learnasp.com>

  19. JavaScript • primarily a browser programming language (note: can also be used server-side) • simple language - not Java • object-oriented approach • code typically embedded into HTML Web page between <script> and </script> tags • can also <link> to external JavaScript file • developed originally by Netscape • a.k.a ECMAScript (JavaScript as standardised by ECMA)

  20. JavaScript and forms • JavaScript typically used in combination with forms to validate input • simple ‘event’ model, e.g. • use ‘onChange’ or ‘onClick’ methods to validate input before sending data to server-side CGI script • check that email addresses have ‘@’ in them • check that numbers contain only digits • check that mandatory fields are filled in

  21. What do I need to do? • nothing to install! JavaScript is supported by the major graphical browsers (at least!) • buy the O’Reilly JavaScript book! • visit <www.javascript.com> • try it! • warning - if you enhance your Web forms using JavaScript make sure that they still work if JavaScript is disabled in the browser!

  22. Java • high level language - simple, supposedly write-once/run anywhere, supposedly secure. • developed by Sun - not standardised • applications - stand-alone • applets - embedded into browser • Java compiled into intermediate language which is then interpreted by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM - machine specific)

  23. Java (2) • applets have not taken off widely • inconsistencies between JVM implementations • resource requirements • can be embedded into server-side applications - Java Server Pages • ‘Java Beans’ provides access to distributed objects • good support for database connectivity • good GUI development environments available

  24. What do I need to do? • buy one of the O’Reilly Java books!! • visit <java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/> for introduction to Java • install Java 2 SDK (Software Developers Kit) • try it by hand-coding using text editor initially • consider buying GUI development tool if required later

  25. Database connectivity • typically, data from a Web form is: • processed directly and used as basis for response to the user • e-mailed to someone for further processing • saved to a file (for further processing!) • processed/stored in a database

  26. ODBC • ODBC - Open Database Connectivity • developed by Microsoft - database API • generic interface to databases • a CGI script developed using ODBC and SQL should work against any SQL database that offers an ODBC driver • Oracle, MS-Access, MySQL • Perl, PHP and ASP all offer access to databases via ODBC

  27. Security • a word of warning... • Web sites that offer interaction thru CGI scripts are inherently a little more insecure than sites that don’t • watch out that: • critical files can’t be downloaded or overwritten • other programs can’t be uploaded or started unintentionally

  28. Personalisation - why? • give your users a personalised view of your Web site - a ‘MyLibrary’ service • remember personal preferences across sessions • I’m interested in poetry • I want the low-graphics view of the Web site • don’t ask for someone’s email address this session if you asked them for it last time

  29. Simple approach • rather than tailoring for individuals, provide views based on different user-groups • develop 3 views of your Web site • business community • kids • general • offer a pull down menu on the home page offering the 3 choices • use JavaScript to switch between the 3 views

  30. Using cookies • remember preferences using cookies • ‘cookies’ are small chunks of information that are stored in the browser but shared with the server • developed by Netscape but widely adopted • typically, cookies are only shared with the server that set them • support for cookies in Perl, PHP and ASP • see books/tutorials for details

  31. Cookie example • use Web form to ask for email address • store email address in cookie and send to Web browser • next time the browser visits your site, the cookie with the email address in it will be passed to you • note - the cookie containing the email address will not be passed to any other server

  32. Database approach • use Web form to ask for more detailed information • store it in a database • ask for a username and password to allow updates • store username/password in database as well • email address often used as preferred username (easy to remember) • Tip 1 - Send details to email address and wait for confirmation before adding to the database - ensures that email address is correct! • Tip 2 - use cookie to store username or username and password to save user typing them every visit

  33. Do I have to know all this? • well… not necessarily! • useful to know the basics • don’t need to develop CGI scripts yourself • products like Microsoft Frontpage come with bundled suites of CGI utilities - form submission, etc. No development required! • use externally hosted services (later talk) • build on what’s already out there - chances are that someone has already developed the CGI script you need

  34. And finally... • recommendations for small scale developments • if you are in a Microsoft environment, use • IIS as server • ASP for scripting • MS-Access on NT server as database • if you are in a UNIX environment, use • Apache as server • PHP for scripting • MySQL as database

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