You must have Perl version 5, and CGI.pm which comes with it.
You must have the SQL database to which you will interface installed.
You must have the DBI Perl module installed.
You must have the DBD Perl module installed for your SQL database.
You must have created a database name, a user, and a password.
The user should have all permissions granted for the intended database.
If you install "ImageMagick" and the "Image::Magick" module
(optional)
you can create thumbnails of uploaded images for faster display.
If you install the Mail::Bulkmail and MIME::Lite modules (optional)
you can send messages to many people quickly.
Installation
Read the license agreement
first. By proceeding with installation you are agreeing to the terms of
the license agreement.
Create an "uploads" directory with 777 permissions (browsable
under the html pages, not in cgi-bin)
Upload the "_images" directory with all of its contents into the
uploads directory, so that "_images" is a sub directory of "uploads".
If you do not already have a database created in your SQL
program for the intended project, have your database administrator
create one and assign FULL privileges to your username.
Open the webdata_pro.pl script and add your database
name, SQL username, SQL password, webdata admin password, the path
and URL to "uploads", and the URL of the script in the designated
places
near the top. These lines are well commented. Unlike Webdata 2.x,
the path to "uploads" does not end with a slash.
Put "webdata_pro.pl" in the cgi-bin and chmod 755 the file.
Put "wdpro.pm" in the cgi-bin and chmod 755 the file.
Browse to the webdata_pro.pl script, and enter "admin" where it
asks for an e-mail address. Enter the administration password in the
password box.
Introduction
See Getting Started
for a quick guide to setting up your first database.
Webdata Pro is a full featured web database design
application. It contains everything you need to create a searchable
online database. Unlike PHP and ASP, Webdata Pro is much more
than simply an interface requiring you to build your own html pages
embedded with SQL tags.
Webdata Pro is a complete user friendly solution. It can create search
pages, reports, and forms on the fly, allowing you to customize them
in a variety of ways to match the look of your site. The members
feature
is pre-built, allowing you to instantly assign passwords and privileges
to your users. The relationship manager is also a big time saver.
Not only does it create pop-up lists with values from the related
table,
but you can select fields from many different tables when designing
your
reports without ever thinking about the relational SQL join syntax.
To users of Webdata 2.x. We appreciate your
continued trust in Webteacher Software to manage your online
databases. Webdata Pro has many similarities to Webdata
2.x. The "layout" screen looks very much like the "customize
pages" screen in Webdata
2.x, with boxes for pasting HTML into the headers, footers, and
templates
to create a customized look and feel. Pictures and files are
still added to the database by defining an "upload" field and then
using the browse button on the submit form, and members can still
modify only
their own data. Much of your Webdata 2.x database can be automatically imported into
Webdata Pro. Here are some of the things that have changed: Relational capabilities: See Introduction to relational
databasing and Table
Relationships for details. Greater Maximum size:Databases such as MySQL are
capable of handling hundreds of times more data than the "flat
text file" method used by Webdata 2.x. Member Profiles: Each member can specify their contact
information, homepage, and up to 10 administrator specified fields.
This information can be automatically included in the search pages,
forms and reports. Member Privileges: Each member can be assigned very specific
privileges about adding, modifying, deleting, and searching.
Groups can be created to assign the same privileges to several members
at once. Password Mailing: If a member forgets their password, it can
be automatically e-mailed to them. Multiple : Each layout includes a search page, report
page, and form view. Different layouts can be used to search different
collections of fields, and you can restrict which layouts are available
to various members or the public. This gives you unlimited
versatility in managing the display of your database.
Planning Your Database:
If you are an experienced database administrator you can
probably skip this part. The first stage in database development
is planning, especially when using a relational database. If you
do not have any experience with relational databases, you should read
the "Intro to relational
database" section first. You need to consider your field
list: what criteria will people use to search, and what information
will they want to see? Look at each field, and ask whether it
should be broken apart into separate fields so that you can search,
sort, or display just one part of it. For example, it might be
fine to have a Name field containing a
person's entire name, unless you will need to sort by Last Name,
or display the Last Name first, in which case you should create
a First Name and a Last Name field. Also,
consider
whether the passage of time could render your data obsolete.
Don't
create an Age field, create Date of Birth. The
same
principal goes for Years With Company vs. Start Date,
etc.
You will need to think about the field types as well. You
will
be required to select whether a field is used for text, numbers, or
dates.
It is important to define a numeric field properly if you will need to
sort
it, so that 51 is less than 229, and to perform numeric searches such
as
"price > 200". On the other hand, phone numbers should be
entered
as text so that you can include ( ) - characters, and zip codes
could
contain either numbers or a mixture, depending on the Country.
Table Relationship Design:
At this point you have read our "Intro to relational
databases" which explains the principle mechanics of joining
tables, but not right and wrong way to decide which tables will be
joined and how. We used an
example of a large list of products which came from the same small list
of vendors. It is important that we put the vendors into a
separate
table, rather than including the vendor's name and contact information
in
one big table. Creating one big "flat file", as such
databases
are called, has several disadvantages. It runs more slowly
because
it has more data, it is cumbersome to update when a vendor's
information
changes (whereas in our relational model you only need to make the
change
once), and data entry will take longer and be more prone to
errors.
Therefore, it is highly recommended that you break your database apart
into
as many smaller tables as possible. How do you know when a
collection
of fields belongs in a separate table? If the value in one field
directs
the value for another field, you should create a separate table for
those
fields. For example, let's say we created an employees table like
this:
"First Name, Last Name, Extension, Department,
Manager, Job Title"
Once you know an employee's department, if that means you must
know
who their manager is, you would want to create a separate table named
"departments", even if Department Name and Manager
are the only fields in it.
Another thing to watch out for is repetitious fields. You
would not want to create a CD database like this:
No matter how many songs you create, there is always the
possibility that someday you will need one more, and your user will not
want to go redefining the table structure just to enter a new CD into
the database. Also, searching for a given song is cumbersome in
this design because you do not know which field to search.
Instead, you would create a table named "Songs" which contains each
song's Song Title, Artist, and CD ID. Now you
have the added flexibility of
being able to associate a different Artist with each song. Later
on, when you are asked to add "running time" of each song into
the database, you can just add a field into the "Songs" table.
Any time that you find yourself numbering fields because they contain
different instances of the same thing you should probably create a
separate
table for them. This design works much better:
Songs
Song Title
Artist CD
Running Time CD ID <1-----M> CD ID CD Title Record Label
Getting Started
Setting up the database: This is our recommended
sequence for building a database in Webdata. To Log In: Browse to the script URL, it will generate a login
page. Enter "admin" in the e-mail box, and your password in the
password box.
Step 1: Create the tables. Now that you have planned your
tables, it is a simple matter to enter them into Webdata. Simply click
"Manage Table Configurations" on the Administration screen, and begin
creating your tables. See "Creating
Tables" for more information. Step 2: Define the relationships. Once each of your tables are
built, you should click the "Define Relationships" button and enter
your one-to-many relationships into Webdata, always putting the Many
side on the LEFT. See "Defining
Relationships" for more information. Step 3. Enter some data. The next step is to
go to the "Data Entry" screen for each
table and add a few sample records. Step 4. Set up the default Layout. When you go to the "Manage Layouts" page, select the default
layout and click "Edit Selected Layout". Choose which fields will
appear on the search page, which fields should appear in the results
table,
whether you want a "form view button" for more details about each
record,
set the number of results per page, and check the "show 'next
page/previous page'", "show 'Go to page 123'", "show 'search again'", "
and "show
'return to home page'" boxes. Next, click "Save Layout", wait for
the screen to refresh, and click "Go to user search page".
Congratulations, you now have a searchable web database. If your
needs are not fancy you can stop right here. Do a few practice
searches, and then return to the Default Layout page and explore more
of the options. Step 5.Create a link on your
new-homepage-under-construction which calls the script followed by: ?_cgifunction=user
For example: <A
HREF="/cgi-bin/webdata_pro.pl?_cgifunction=user"> Search the
database </A>
(Later, when you have created other
layouts, you can add &_layout=LayoutName to the URL to call different search pages which lead
to different reports) See "Search Pages" for
more information.. Step 6. Create members to add records.
If someone besides yourself needs to enter data into the tables, click "Manage Members" from the administration page
and click "Add New Member". Enter at least an e-mail address and
password for the member, and check the "Add" box at the bottom for each
table to which the member may add records. Also select the
default
layout so that this person can search. Now return to the login
page
and log in as the new member. You will be able to customize this
page
later. If there are more people that will be able to add records,
you will select THIS member in their "Group" box so that you do not
have to enter the the same privileges again. Step 7. Create members to Search. If you
want to make some information available only to members, first reset
the default layout so that it does not contain the privileged
fields. Then create a new layout which does contain those
fields, being sure that "allow visitors to search" is not
checked. Now, create a member and select the name of the new
layout in his/her profile. Create other members that may search,
and group them to that
member so that you do not need to enter the same privileges again.
Step 8. Customize, customize, customize.
There are more ways to customize Webdata than you can shake a stick at.
Login page: To create a
custom login page, simply browse to webdata_pro.pl so that the default
login page comes up. Next, choose SAVE-AS from your browser's FILE
menu,
and save it to your hard disk as, for instance, "login.html". You
may now modify "login.html" to match the look and feel of your web site
and upload it to your server.
Search page: First, if you are
linking to the default layout for searches, you can customize the
search page either by entering custom HTML in the "search page header"
and "search page footer" boxes, or by choosing SAVE-AS while viewing
the default search page, editing a copy of it, and then entering the
URL to the
customized form in the box provided in the default layout page labeled
'URL for "search again" link'.
Search Results, Report: You may
customize the report by entering custom HTML in the header, sub-footer,
and
footer for search results. You can enter your own colors or background
into the BODY tag, select the number of results per page, and which
navigation controls you want. If you like using a table for the
results,
you can choose the colors of the table and enter font tag
parameters. If you choose to include a "form view" button to open
another window with details about the selected record, you may either
enter the label of the button, or replace it with the URL of your own
image. If you want even more customization, you can create a
template by pasting the HTML for 1 record into the "template for search
results" box (it
will repeat for each record), and inserting $data[table.field] tags
where
the data will go, plus lots of other tags. See "templates" for more information.
Form view: To customize the form
view at all you have to use a template. The default layout is a
simple table with the values for every field in the searched table and
each related table. To customize it, simply make up an HTML page
in your
favorite editor, paste the source HTML into the form template box, and
then insert $data[table.field] tags where the data will go.
Members page: The member page
is the page the member sees immediately after logging in. You may
create as many member pages as you like. Each member (or member
group) could have a different one if needed. Simply log in as
a member, choose SAVE-AS on the default member page, customize a copy
of
it with your favorite HTML editor, and paste the URL of the custom
member
page in the box provided on each member's page. You could also
enter
a URL of a custom search page into this box to make that page come up
upon
logging in, or you could use the same SAVE-AS technique to make a
custom
copy of the "Data Entry" page for a given table, and enter that into
the
"Custom Member Page" box. Perhaps your custom member page will be
a nice looking collection of links to several custom search pages and
custom add pages. The possibilities are endless.
Creating Tables
From the administration screen, click on "Manage Table
Configurations". In this screen you can see the existing tables,
and you can either
build a table from scratch, or upload a delimited text file and have
Webdata convert it into a table. If you click "Build New Table",
Webdata will prompt you for the table name, and then it will take you
into the Field Manager for that table. Initially the table will have
only
one field, the name you chose followed by "_id". This field will
be
defined as the primary key. If you have another field in mind for
the
primary key, you can change the key and delete the [tablename]_id field
after
you have finished defining your fields. Note: If the table name
ends
with the letter 's', Webdata will drop the last letter of the table
when
defining the ID field, so that a table named "Employees" will have a
key
field of "employee_id". You may rename a field any time if this
results
in an improper field name.
See "Defining Fields" below for
instructions on creating the fields for your new table.
Deleting Tables - If you want
to delete a table, click the "Drop this entire table" button at the
bottom of the table's field manager. Renaming a Table - There is a
"Rename Table" button at the bottom of the table's field manager.
Please note that we are still working on the resursive routines which
should follow a table renaming. As of Version 1.52, you will still need
to update the layouts and relationships to replace any occurences of
the old table name.
Uploading New Tables
There are two ways to upload your delimited text files into
Webdata. If the table has already been created, and the fields in
your table match the fields in your delimited text file, you can use
the "import" button, located on the "Manage Records" page. Click here for details. If the table
has not been created yet, and your delimited text file contains the
field names in the first row, Webdata can build the table
automatically. At the bottom of the "Manage Table Configurations"
screen, use the browse button to select your text file. Then
choose "comma", "tab", or
"pipe" from the delimiter list, and click "Upload Table". A
prompt
box will ask you what you want to name the new table. Webdata
will
analyze your data and select field types such as "text", "int",
"float",
and "date". It will also create a primary key field named "ID"
or "ID_1" which will contain an auto counter. If your table
already
has a primary key, you can simply reassign the primary key and then
delete
the "ID" field. All of the fields will be text boxes of various
sizes until you use the Field Manager to
redefine them.
Upgrading from Webdata 2.x
At the bottom of the "Manage Table Configurations" screen
there is a link labeled "Upgrade from Webdata 2.x". When the link
is clicked, a prompt box will ask for the filename of the Webdata
database from which you are upgrading. If you are running Webdata
Pro
in the same cgi-bin as your old Webdata database, simply enter the
filename of the script, for example "webdata_dbname.pl". Webdata
Pro will open the specified file, locate the log files, and build a new
table named "dbname" (or whatever your database is named) with all of
the same field preferences. It will also copy many of your report
preferences
to a new layout named "dbname". The new layout form and the old
"customize pages" screen are not identical, and there may still be some
fine-tuning to do, but this will alleviate 90% of the work.
If you are running Webdata Pro in a different folder or on a
different server from your Webdata 2.x database, you can still use this
utility to import your old database. Simply import the 4 *.log
files from the cgi-bin of your Webdata 2.x database into the cgi-bin
where Webdata Pro now resides. Then, in the prompt box, enter an
exclamation point followed by just the NAME portion of your
database. In our example, if the log files are named
"dbname_data.log", "dbname_fields.log", "dbname_report.log" and
"dbname_members.log", you would type: "!dbname" into the prompt
box.
Members cannot be imported. Webdata 2.x uses a one-way
encryption for the member passwords, which means that there is no way
to import them into the new format. The instructions above will
work just as well with only the "dbname_data.log", "dbname_fields.log",
and "dbname_report.log" files.
Defining Fields
You can enter the Field Manager for a given table one of 3
ways. First, if you click "Manage Table Configurations" from the
administration screen you will enter the "Manage Tables" page. Clicking
on the name of any table will bring you into the Field Manager for that
table. Second, when managing records in any given table, there is
a link at the bottom titled "Edit fields for [table name] table" which
will bring you into the Field Manager. Third, when you click
"Build New Table" in the "Manage Tables" screen you will be forwarded
to the new table in Field Manager view.
Note: You should always put the most important and
descriptive fields first when setting up your tables in Webdata.
There are
two reasons for this. First, when using the "search/modify"
button
on the "Manage Records" screen, the table will show only the first 8
fields in the database. Second, if a table is on the "one" side of a
"one to
many" relationship, the table's primary key will appear in a select
list
when adding or modifying records to the related table. The list will
contain the primary key followed by the first 3 fields in the database.
Here is a screenshot of a typical table.
Name is the field's name in the SQL database. For
consistency and stability, Webdata defines field names in lowercase
with no spaces. Data Type is the SQL database's data type, such as
text, date, or int. Display Type is the type of input box which will appear on the
add and search forms. It can be a textbox, a checkbox, a select
list, a textarea (comment) box, or a file box for uploading images. Display Parameters contains information about the display
type. For example, if the display type is "textbox", the parameters
will contain the size. If it is a select list, the parameters
will
contain the option values or you will be able to select a table and
field
which contains the option values. Checkboxes have no parameters.
A textarea box will prompt you for the number of characters wide and
rows high the box should be. An upload field will prompt you for
the maximum number of Kilobytes and permissible file extensions to be
uploaded. Display Label is the text which appears next to each
box. It may contain spaces, caps, or even symbol characters
because it is not used in the SQL statements. Required is self explanatory. When this is selected you the
database will not let you leave this field blank. Index
is checked if the database has indexed that field. You can add or
drop indexes by checking this box. Wait a moment after checking
or unchecking an index box as the page will need to refresh.
Indexes are discussed in more detail under "Defining Relationships". Comment
fields
will automatically use FULLTEXT indexes, indicated by the letter "F"
next to the checked box. See "FULLTEXT indexes" under "Search Logic" for more details. Autocount
will display the word "Yes" if a field is set to have an auto
counter. In this case, the field should be left blank when adding
new records, and the database will automatically insert a sequential
number. Key, in the current version, each table may have
only 1 primary key. You may change the primary key by clicking a
radio button in this column.
Wait a moment after selecting a new Key for the page to refresh.
The primary key is discussed in more detail under "Defining Relationships".
To create a new field: First, use the column of radio
buttons on the left edge of the table to select the field which is just
above where you would like to create your new field.
Then click "Insert field below selection" to start the "define field"
wizard. By
default the last field is selected and the "Insert field below
selection
" button is focused, so that you can add several fields rapidly by
pressing
'Enter' each time the page refreshes. If you want to insert a
field at the top of the list, you must first clear the column of all
selections. To do this, click the " Click here to reset the
form." link at the bottom of the page, then click "Insert field below
selection". See "Defining a field" in this section for a
description of the "define field wizard."
To delete a field: Use the column of radio buttons on the
left edge of the table to select the field which you would like to
delete. Then click the button labeled "Delete selected field". A
JavaScript box will ask you to confirm that you want to delete that
field. All data in that field will be destroyed. If the field is
an upload field, all images or files associated with that field will be
destroyed.
To redefine a field: You may change the name, data type,
display type, display parameters, display label, requirements, or auto
count status of a field by selecting the radio button on the left edge
of
the table for the desired field and then clicking "Redefine selected
field." See "Defining a field" below in this section for a
description of the
"define field wizard" which will appear.
Defining a field: Both "Insert field below selection" and
"Redefine selected field" will launch the "define field" wizard. The
wizard
is a series of JavaScript prompts which ask you questions about the
type
of data which will be saved in the field. The first box asks you
to choose a name. Enter the Display Name, as you want it
to
appear on your forms and reports. Next you are asked whether the
display should be a textbox, checkbox, list, comment (textarea), or
Upload. Enter only the NUMBERwhich appears next
to the desired option. From there, the questions vary depending
on your choice. Whenever the options are numbered, enter only the
NUMBER of the desired
option. The wizard may end by asking if this field is required
(enter
'Yes' or 'No') and if this field should have an auto counter (enter
'Yes'
or 'No'). When there are no more prompts, wait for the page to
refresh
before continuing.
Drop this entire table: If you click this button, and
click "OK" when the JavaScript confirm box appears, the entire table
and all
of its contents will be removed from the database.
Here is a quick example that explains what relational databasing
is:
Imagine that you have a database of 15,000 products which you sell
in your
store. Each of these products is ordered from one of 11 different
vendors that
you work with. You wish to display each product, with the name and
address
of its vendor. It would be a waste of space to repeat the vendor's name
and
address over and over again in the products table. Instead,
the smart solution
is to create another small table named "vendors", which contains only
11
records, one for each vendor, with each vendor's address. Then, as long
as
you have a vendor name in the products table for each record, the
database
can actually look up the vendor information as it displays each
product. It is
this process of looking up information from another table that has come
to
be known as Relational Databasing.
Products Table: --------------- SKU_Code Name Description
Vendors Table: Price
-------------- Vendor <M-------------------1> Vendor_Name
Address
City
State/Province
Postal Code
Telephone
Fax
Now, when we query the database for a product named "small
widget",
the
database will locate the record in Products which contains "small
widget" in
the Name field. It will display the SKU_Code, Name, Description, and
Price.
It will then automatically find the record in Vendors which
contains the same
value in "Vendor_Name" as the Products table has stored in the "Vendor"
field, and it will display the Vendor Name, Address, City, etc.
Sometimes students will ask "Doesn't this slow the database down
because it
has to do all of these additional lookups?" The answer is "No. Actually
the
database goes faster because it has to load less data into memory." In
fact,
databases preload a list of Vendor Names so that they can locate the
correct
record without searching. This list is called an index.
Primary Keys
What would happen if we had two vendors with the same name?
For
example, if some products are ordered from "American Widgets" out of
the
Seattle, WA office, and others come from another branch of "American
Widgets" located in Boston, MA. When a product tried to lookup the
vendor
information for "American Widgets", it would not know which
record to load.
Because of this, there is a rule that the field which is used for
looking up
values from other tables must be unique. This field has a special name.
It is
called the Primary Key.. If we had defined "Vendor_Name" as
the primary
key, the database would never have allowed us to enter a second record
with
the same vendor name as an existing record. We would have been forced
to
choose an alternative, such as "American Widgets - Boston",
and the problem
would be resolved. The database also makes sure that the Primary Key
field
is never left blank, and it will create an index so that the lookups
are as fast as
possible.
1 to 1, 1 to Many
There are 2 types of table relationships, "1 to 1", and "1 to Many".
The most
common type of table relationship is called a "1 to Many" relationship.
Using
our example above, each vendor name will appear only once in the
Vendors
table, but it could appear many times in the Products table. In the
diagram
above, a "1" and an "M" were placed at the appropriate ends
of the
relationship line.
1 to 1 relationships are used to break one big table into 2
smaller
tables. You
may wish to do this because some of the data is not used much of the
time,
and you want to speed up the database for the remaining data. Also, in
some
programs, you may be able to restrict access to the second table for
security
reasons.
Combo Boxes - lists of possible values while adding or
modifying
records. If you have defined a 1 to Many relationship between two
tables,
when you go to add a new record to the table on the "Many" side,
Webdata
will automatically insert a select list with all of the possible values
for the
foreign key, the field that is used to look up a value from
the other table. This
is very helpful because it means you do not have to worry about
entering the
related values correctly. Note: When defining the fields for a table
which will
be on the "one side" of a relationship, put the most important and
descriptive
fields first. The first 3 field values will appear next to the primary
key in the
select list. That way, if the primary key is a social security number,
you can
have the person's name appear next to each number in the list.
2. Webdata's
Relationship Screen
In the Webdata "Table Relationships" screen, each relationship is
displayed as
a pair of select lists.
IMPORTANT, in a "1 to Many" relationship, The Many table always
goes on the left. Our example above would be displayed like
this:
more than 1 relationship:
If you wish to create more that 1 relationship, simply select your
first table
relationship using the 2 boxes on the screen, labeled "** Select a
field **",
then click "Save Table Relationships". When the screen refreshes, it
will
display your selections, and then create 2 more "** Select a field **"
boxes
for your next table relationship.
Deleting a relationship:
To delete a relationship, select the first option (** Delete
Relationship **) in
either column, and then click "Save Table Relationships".
Adding Records
Records are added, modified, and deleted from the "Data
Entry" screen. From the administration screen if you click "Manage
Records" you will be taken to a list of each table in the
database. After you select a table and click "Go to selected
table" you will come to
the Data Entry screen for that table. Users of Webdata 2.x will
notice that the Data Entry screen is identical to the administration
screen
from that version. Members that have privileges to add, modify,
or delete records in one or more tables will see a "Manage Records"
button
on their main Members Page. Also, when managing the fields for
any table there is a link at the bottom to go to the Data Entry page
for
the same table.
To add a record, simply enter the desired data into the field
boxes
and click "Add". You may leave boxes labeled (Auto Fill)
blank.
If the field is a date, the proper format (mm/dd/yy) or (dd/mm/yy) will
appear. 2 digit years less than 20 are assumed to be Y2K, but you
can always enter a 4 digit year to be sure. You may also omit the
year and Webdata will assume the current year.
Allowing visitors to add records without logging in.
Every record in Webdata Pro must have an owner, but that does not mean
that you need to force users to complete the member registration page
just to get them to sign your guestbook or rate a product.
To allow anonymous submissions to a table, first, create a guest
membership account, for example:
email="guest", password="guest", firstname="guest", lastname="guest".
Next, check the box allowing "guest" to add records to the desired
table.
Log in as "guest" and select the desired table.
Choose SAVE-AS from the FILE menu in your browser. Save the
blank table form to your hard drive as "guestsubmit.html", for example.
Open "guestsubmit.html" in your favorite html editor. You may now
modify the look of the page to match your web site.
Just before the </FORM> tag, insert the following:
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="username" VALUE="guest">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="password" VALUE="guest">
Finally, upload "guestsubmit.html" to any directory on your
server and create links to it as needed.
Adding records to two or more related tables at the same time. Webdata Pro can handle adding records into two or more related
tables from a single form. All you have
to do is include the desired "table.field" input boxes for both tables,
and include all of the
table names in the "_tableName" field, seperated by a comma. For
example, lets say you have
a database of realtors and realty offices.
Make sure you've set up the relationships screen to reflect the
join between these two tables.
Now, if a realty office doesn't exist, you want to make it easy for a
realtor to enter themselves and their office all at once, rather than
forcing them to "add an office" and then "add a realtor" while
selecting the office that they just added from a list. If you
copy the "Manage Data" page for both tables into one form and remove
the headers and footers you might get a form that looks like this:
Realtors
owner (use for searching only)
timestamp (use for searching
only) realtor_id (use for searching
only) name photo phone office
Offices
owner (use for searching only)
timestamp (use for searching
only) office_id (use for searching
only) name address
Next remove all of the boxes with "use for searching only) next to
them, and clean up the form until it looks something like this:
Finally, you need to modify the hidden _tableName tag so
that it
contains both table names like so:
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="_tableName" VALUE="office, realtor">
Webdata Pro will determine that "office" is on the 1-side of the
relationship. It will submit
the values to the office table first. Since office_id is an auto-count
field and no value was submitted, a unique
number will automatically inserted into the office_id field. Webdata
Pro will then retrieve that number and use
it as the value of "realtor.office" when submitting the values to the
"realtor" table.
Importing Text Files
Importing to an existing table: At the bottom of
the Data Entry screen (see "Adding Records"
above) admin will see a link titled "Import Records". This takes
you to the Import screen, from which you may use the Browse button to
select a delimited text file, choose whether the file is comma, tab, or
pipe
delimited, and import. The delimited text file must be in the
same
sequence as the fields in Webdata. We recommend using Excel or
Lotus
to change the column sequence until the field sequences match.
Skip First Column: When you define a new table or import
an existing table, Webdata Pro automatically creates an autocounter
field named "table_ID" as the first field.
In some cases you will delete that field because you already have
a primary key field in that table. Other times you will choose to leave
it there. When you go to import more data into that table, the
columns in your source file must match the fields in Webdata exactly
(not including the hidden _owner and _timestamp fields). You can
either insert a
blank column to the left of your data to hold a place for the table_ID
field, or simply check this box to skip that field.
You can easily export some or all of any table to a comma,
tab, or pipe delimited text file. Simply browse to the "Manage
Records" page for the desired table, and click "search/modify". You may
enter some criteria in the boxes first to restrict the search, or leave
the form blank to display all of the records in the table. Once
the
first page of records appears, scroll to the bottom of the screen and
locate
the "Export" button. Choose your delimiter from the list and
click
"Export". The page which follows is in plain text format, no HTML
is used. Select SAVE-AS from the file menu, and change the name (which
will
be the script name by default) to something appropriate such as
"export.txt".
If you choose "comma" as your delimiter, use ".csv" as the file
extension. It will make it easier to import into some programs.
Exporting to Microsoft Excel If you choose "MS Excel" from the delimiter list and Excel is
installed on your machine the results will open in Excel.
Modifying Records
To modify a record, start at the Data Entry page for the
desired table (see "Adding Records").
Search for the record by entering criteria into any field and clicking
"Search/modify". See "Search Logic"
for a technical discussion of the search syntax available from this
screen. You may also leave the box blank to show a list of all
records in the table. When the results appear, click anywhere on
the selected record, and a
new window, the "Maintenance Page" will open with that record's data in
field boxes. You may sort the search results screen by clicking
on the column labels. Make your changes in the boxes, and click
"Modify".
The window will close (unless debug is on)
and
the search results page will refresh to show the modified data.
If your change is not allowed (for instance, if you entered a duplicate
value in a primary key field) you will get an error with a message from
the SQL database software explaining the reason your modification was
not
accepted.
If you would like to customize the Maintenance Page for certain
members, either to give the page a more customized look, or to hide
certain
fields from access, there is a template on
the members page next to each table.
Replacing Values
You can effectively perform a Search-and-replace in
Webdata.
First, click "Manage Records" and select the desired table.
Next, search for only the records in which you will replace
a field value. At the bottom of the screen there is an option
to choose which field will contain the new value, and a box in which
you may enter the new value.
To enter a text value in the selected field, put a quotation mark
before and after the text. Entering: "red"
into the box will put the word red into the selected
field for each found record.
To enter a calculation, type the fieldname without quotes, for
example, I could increase the price of
every item by 10% by selecting the price field, and entering: price=price*1.1
You may also use the wide array of Math, Date, and String
functions
built into MySQL. For example, to use the LEFT() function to remove all
but
the first 5 characters of the zipcode field, I would enter: LEFT(zipcode,4)
See the MySQL manual for a complete list of functions.
Technical Note: The contents of the textbox is transferred
directly to a MySQL UPDATE statement like so:
UPDATE table SET selected-fieldname = textbox-value WHERE
search-performed-earlier
The easiest way to delete a record is to use the
"Search/modify" button from the Data Entry page (see "Adding Records"). Each found record
will have a checkbox on its
left with the word "Delete" at the top of the column. Simply
select
the record or records which you wish to delete, and then click "Delete
Only Selected Records" at the bottom of the page. If you need to
delete a large number of records which all conform to a certain
criteria
you may enter that criteria into the Data Entry form, click
"Search/modify", and then click "Delete All ## Found Records" at the
bottom of the page (where ## is the number of found records). For
example, If I wished to expunge all records where the "Date of Sale" is
less than 1/1/2000, I would type: <1/1/2000 into
the "Date of Sale" box, click "Search/modify", and then click "Delete
All ## Found Records".
Multi-line Text Data
When text is added into a comment field, the text wrapping
feature is set to "soft", which means that, although the text will
appear to wrap in the box, no newline (AKA Carriage Return) character
is being saved unless the user expressly pressed the "Enter" key, or
pastes text into the box which contains a newline character.
When the data is displayed, Webdata automatically replaces all
newline characters with a <BR> tag. This enables the
program to preserve the original formatting so that the line breaks
entered by
the user are shown in the search results.
If you do not want Webdata to substitute newlines with <BR>
tags, the data must begin with "<HTML>". The presence of the
<HTML> tag at the start of the data will disable <BR>
substitution. This is particularly useful to webmasters that wish
to embed JavaScript commands, or other syntax where line breaks are
important but are not to be displayed. The field does not
actually need to contain HTML formatted text in order to use an opening
<HTML> tag as a signal to disable newline/<BR> substitution.
Uploading Images
Before you can upload an image, you need to define a field
as an upload field (see "Defining Fields").
When the "define field" wizard asks for the "Display Type", enter
the number corresponding with "Upload". For security reasons
you will enter a list of the file types that are permitted (usually
"gif,jpg")
and the maximum number of Kilobytes for an upload. Now, when you
go to the Data Entry screen for that table, the field will appear as a
textbox with a Browse button next to it. Simply click the Browse
button, select the image from your hard disk, fill in the rest of the
Data Entry form, and click "Add".
The image is placed in the "uploads" directory, which is
hard-coded
into the header of the script. The path includes
uploads/[tablename]/[keyValue]/[fieldname]/filename.ext. The
absolute URL to the image is saved in the database. When
Webdata displays the data, it will display the value within an
<IMG>
tag so the image will appear on-screen. If you have problems
uploading images, check that the "uploads" directory is properly
defined in the header of the script (both the server path and the URL),
and that the
"uploads" directory has 666 permissions.
You can create thumbnails on-the-fly if you have ImageMagick
installed on your server with the Image::Magick Perl module. On
the page, there is a box to enter the desired WIDTH of all
thumbnails. If there is a value in this box, every image uploaded
will have a corresponding thumbnail named "_tn_imagename" in the same
directory. When designing your templates, you can call the
thumbnail of the current image by
placing "$thumbnail[table.imageField]" in the page instead of
"$data[table.imageField]". By rendering a smaller copy of each
picture, your main report page
will load faster, and you can still create links to the full sized
image
using "$data[table.imageField]".
Backing-Up the Database
The "Back-up the database" link at the bottom of the
"Manage
Records" screen, will load a page with controls to backup and restore
the
entire MySQL database. This feature uses the "mysqldump" utility,
which
is a standard part of the MySQL installation. When you click
"Backup
Database", your screen will be filled with a long SQL script that will,
when
executed, rebuild and repopulate all of the tables in your
database.
We recommend leaving the "Include DROP TABLE" box checked so that the
restore
will be clean unless you have a specific reason for leaving the DROP
TABLE
commands out of your script.
The script will appear as plain text, not html, so you can simply
choose SAVE-AS from the FILE menu to save it to your hard disk.
Rather than use the Webdata script name, which will be the default,
you may name the file anything you choose.
To restore a database from a previously backed-up version, simply
select the backup file using the "Browse" button, and click "Restore
Database".
Troubleshooting: If you receive a "Could not find
mysqldump", the mysqldump program is not on the server, or is not
available to
the userid under which Webdata is running. Check with your system
administrator.
If the file is too large to upload through the browser, you can
upload it manually to your home directory. Then, from a telnet prompt,
type: cat [filename] | mysql [dbname] -u
[dbusername]
-p
where [filename] is the backup script, [dbname] is your database
name, and [dbusername] is your MySQL username.
Zip code Distance
Calculations
Webdata Pro has the ability to calculate the distance
between 2 US zip codes. To use this feature:
1. Locate the "add_zip_codes.sql" file which came bundled in the
webdata_pro.zip file.
2. Click "Manage Records", then click "Back-up the database", click
"Browse" and choose "add_zip_codes.sql".
3. Click "Restore Database". Click "OK" at the warning (this script
does not overwrite any tables other than _zipcode)
Be patient, the file is 2.7MB.
4. The easiest way to implement a distance search is to use
the Search by zip code distance
feature in a layout.
On the layout, there is an option below the search fields which
reads:
Search
by
zip code distance:
Allow users
to search by distance from the zip code in this
field: [LIST OF FIELDS]
The "Search by zip code distance" feature will insert the following
onto a search page:
Search by distance: Less than <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="_zipDistance" SIZE=3
VALUE="20"> miles from <INPUT
TYPE=TEXT NAME="_homeZip" SIZE=5 MAXLENGTH=5>
If a zip code field has been chosen in the layout and there is any
value submitted for _homezip, Webdata Pro will
automatically attach the math equivalent of this to the query: WHERE (distance from _homeZip to zipField)
< _zipDistance
Shortcut for members: If the value of _homeZip is "member",
Webdata Pro will use the zip code from the member's profile as the
_homeZip value. You could easily embed this into a link on the
custom
member page like so:
<A
HREF="/cgi-bin/webdata_pro.pl?_cgifunction=search&_layout=businesses&_homeZip=member&_zipDistance=30">
Show businesses within 30
miles of your zip code.
</A>
Displaying distances: If you use templates, you may enter
"$distance" in either the search results template of the form view
template to
display the distance between the _homeZip value on the search page
and the value in the zip code field.
International Distances: Currently we only have the data
for
US zip codes. If you would like us to add data for another Country,
please
send us the data for each Postal Code with Longitude and Latitude. We
will
add options for Kilometers and multiple languages when we expand the
Zipcode
database to include other Countries.
Keeping the data current: The data included in the
webdata_pro.zip file was compiled by the US Census Beuro in 1999. It is
the most current source of free zip code coordinates available to date.
There are private organizations that are constantly updating their zip
code information and who offer their data for sale. If you would like
to use a 3rd party data source, simply strip it of every column except
for "zipcode", "latitude", and "longitude". Create a table named
"temp" with the following
3 fields:
zipcode (text, 5 chars, required), latitude (text 9 chars),
longitude (text 9 chars). Set "zipcode" as the primary key and
delete the "temp_id" field. Finally, use the "import" button on the
temp data page to import your file. Next, go to the SQL page and
type these commands:
DROP TABLE _zipcode;
DROP TABLE _temp;
ALTER TABLE temp RENAME AS _zipcode;
ALTER TABLE _zipcode DROP _owner;
ALTER TABLE _zipcode DROP _timestamp;
Layouts
A layout is a collection of preferences for a
search page, a report, and a form view. You may have as many
layouts as you like. Enter a layout by creating a link to
"?_cgifunction=user&_layout=layoutName" on your home page.
You may have different layouts for searching different collections of
tables, or perhaps the layout available to
the public will not show certain fields reserved for members. Here is
a screenshot of the layout screen.
Search Pages
Check "Allow visitors to search with this layout?"
if you would like this layout to be available to the general public.
If this box is unchecked, you may still make the layout available to
members through the Members page. The selected Language
will be used for the default instructions, and all buttons and links
the user will see on the search page, the report, and the form.
To create a search page in Webdata, first enter some header HTML
in the "Header for search page" box, such as your company's name
and logo. You may either type your own instructions into the
header box, or check "Include default instructions on search page"
and Webdata will insert the instructions just below the header.
Next you will choose "which fields to include on the search page".
Usually there are certain fields which the user will want to use for
searching, such as names and descriptions of the items in the table,
and there are other fields which a user would never search for.
Click "Clear Sequence" to be sure the right-hand box is clean, and then
click on each desired search field in the left-hand box in the sequence
you would like them to appear. If you make a mistake, click
"Clear Sequence" and start over.
Finally, enter any footer text, such as a copyright or navigation links
into the "Footer for search page" box. Check your work
by clicking the "Save Layout" button at the top, and then clicking "Go
to user search page" just below that button after the page refreshes.
To create a custom search
page follow the instructions above to have Webdata create a search
page and click "Go to user search page." Choose SAVE-AS from the
browser's FILE menu and save the page to your hard disk. Open the
page in your favorite HTML editor and customize it any way you like,
then
upload it to your server. Finally, enter the URL to your
customized
page into the box labeled "URL for "search again" link".
If
this box is not empty, the user will be forwarded to that URL whenever
they
choose to search this layout.
See Search Logic for a technical
discussion of the search syntax options.
Search Fields: If you do not choose to use a custom
search page,
you may select which fields will appear as search boxes on the search
page
using the 2 select lists under the heading: "Which fields should appear
on the search page?".
Use a single search box for entire record: If this box is
checked, the selected fields mentioned above will not appear. Instead,
a single box will be displayed. Search words entered into this
box will
return records which contain one of those words in any text
field.
In addition, the word "AND" is used to limit the results to records
which contain both words, and the word "NOT" is used to limit the
results to records which do not contain the word which follows it.
search words
return results where this is true for the entire record
red green blue
contains "red" or "green" or "blue"
red green and blue
(contains "red" or "green") AND (contains "blue")
red green and blue yellow
(contains "red" or "green") AND (contains "blue" or
"yellow")
not blue
does not contain "blue"
red green not blue
(contains "red" or "green") AND (does not contain "blue")
Search by zip code distance Allow users to search by distance from the
zip code in this field:
You must load the _zipcode table to use this feature. See Zip Code Distance Calculations.
If you select a field from this list which contains a US zip code,
Webdata will automatically
insert the following on the default search page for this layout:
Search by distance: Less than miles from this zip code
Of course, you may change the text any way you like if you create a custom search page.
Reports
General page layout using templates:
A report is a list of found records
which match the
user's
search criteria. In Webdata, you have a choice of either defining
a
table, or creating templates which use your own custom HTML. Here
is
a breakdown of the Report options
Parameters for BODY tag: Anything entered into this box
will be inserted in the BODY tag, after the word "BODY" and before the
closing ">". You can insert values for bgColor or Background to
change the background color or replace the background with an image.
You can also set values for "color", "link", and "vlink" to change the
text color. Furthermore, if you need to insert a special parameter such
as "onLoad='setTimeVal()'" you may do so here.
URL for "return to homepage" link: If you check the "Show
Return to Homepage" checkbox, further down on the page, a link will
appear at the bottom of every page labeled "Return to Homepage" in the
selected language. If this box is left empty, it will link to the
default search page, otherwise it will link to whatever URL is entered
in this box. It is best to enter full URLs into this box, beginning
with "http://".
Header for Search Results: Any HTML entered into this box
will be displayed at the top of the search results page. This is a good
place to put your company name, an image tag for your logo, and any
navigation buttons which are found throughout your site. You may enter
$count[table.field], $sum[table.field], or $avg[table.field] to display
summary data. For example, to show the sum of the "quantity"
field
in the "sales" table, you would simply enter: $sum[sales.quantity]
into the header where
you want the number to appear. The "Insert Field Assistant" located next
to the template boxes can help you create these tags.
Display Search Criteria: When this box is checked, the
parameters that the user searched for will be displayed just below the
Header
text. This is useful if your user will be displaying many complex
queries, and would like to document each one so they can tell them
apart when
reviewing printouts at a later time.
Hide Table Border: Simply a cosmetic choice. Webdata also
increases the cellpadding to make the table look better.
Font information: A FONT tag is inserted at the beginning
of every <TD> cell in the results table. Any text which you enter
in this box will be inserted into that FONT tag, after the word "FONT"
and before the closing ">". This allows you to change the font,
size, and color of the text inside the table.
Table Background Colors:: The Header Row is the
first row of the table. It contains the name of each field displayed. Alternate Row1 is the background color of all of
the odd numbered rows, while Alternate Row2 is the background
color of all of the even numbered rows. You may use the "Display Color
Table" button at the top of the page to get a list of the commonly used
colors, or you may enter a # sign followed by a 6 character hex code
for the desired color.
Sub-Footer for Search Results: The HTML entered into this
box will be displayed immediately after the search results. This is
especially useful if you wish to position the search results into your
own table. If you place a <TD> tag at the end of the "Header for
search results", you would place a </TD> tag at the top of the
"Sub-Footer for search results" box.
Number of Results Per Page If the number of found records
exceeds the number in this box, a "next page" button and "go to page 1
2 3
..." links will appear after the desired number of records is
displayed.
Show "go to page 1 2 3 ...": If the number of results per
page were set to 20, for example, and a query found 520 records,
Records 1-20 would appear on the first search results page, and Webdata
will
display:
If the user wished to skip directly records number 501-520, they could
click on the last numbered link, rather than clicking "next page" 26
times. If the number of pages is greater than 50, Webdata will scale
the numbering to avoid a cumbersome list of page numbers.
Show "Next Page/Previous Page" Buttons: Using the example
above, where records 1-20 of 520 are displayed on the first search
results page, the user could click "Next page" to display records
21-40, then click it again to display records 41-60, etc. Likewise, the
user can
go backwards by clicking the "Previous page" button. This box should
be checked unless you have an unusual situation such as withholding the
records on the other pages from non-members.
Note: You may define your own images to use instead of the default
buttons. See the text boxes titled "Next Page/Previous Page Buttons"
farther down on the layout form.
Show "Search Again" link: When this box is checked, a
link titled
"Search again" (in the selected language) will appear at the bottom of
each
page. The link will point to the default search page unless there is a
value
in the "URL for search again" box above.
Show "Return to Homepage" link: When this box is checked,
a link titled "Return to Homepage" (in the selected language) will
appear at the bottom of each page. The link will point to the default
homepage page unless there is a value in the "URL for Return to
Homepage" box above.
Bare-Bones mode: If you use the
$include tag or your own SSI tag to insert the results of a search
inside of another page, there are certain hidden parts of the page
which you may wish to surpress, for instance: The <HTML>,
<HEAD>, and <BODY> tags, the
JavaScript functions for changing pages, the "nav" form which is
embedded
in the bottom of the page, and the hidden table which is used to keep
the
"Next Page" and "Previous Page" buttons aligned. When NONE of the
following
boxes are checked, the above items are surpressed. "Show x-y of
z",
"Go to page 123...", " Show "Next Page/Previous Page" Buttons", " Show
'Search
Again' link", " Show 'Return to Homepage' link", " Include Form View
Button".
Footer for entire Search Results page: The HTML entered
into this box will appear at the very bottom of the page. If you would
like a footer navigation bar or a copyright to appear on every page,
this is the place to put it. You may enter $count[table.field],
$sum[table.field], or $avg[table.field] to display summary data.
For example, to show the sum of the "quantity" field in the "sales"
table, you would simply enter: $sum[sales.quantity]
into the footer where you want the number to appear. The "Insert Field Assistant" located next
to the template boxes can help you create these tags.
Sequence of Fields: If you do not use a template, Webdata
will show the found records in a table. These two boxes are used to
determine WHICH columns to display, and in what sequence. To select
your columns, first click "Clear Sequence", then click on each field in
the left box in the sequence you would like. We recommend you limit the
Report Columns list to 7 or 8 of the most important fields. Then, if
you check the "Include Form View Button" checkbox below, the user will
be able to click on
any record to see more information. If you select fields from 2 or more
different tables, Webdata will use the table relationships to build the
query accordingly. You should be aware of the table relationships when
selecting fields. For an explanation of the
"table._owner.firstname","table._owner.lastname" fields, see "Using Member Fields".
Sorting: Use these boxes to select the field you wish to
sort the results on, and whether to sort in ascending or descending
order. The second, third, and fourth sort boxes are only used if you
are likely to have several of the same value in the the first (or
second) sort field. For example, If I choose "State" in the first sort
box, "City" in the
second, and "Last Name" in the third, I am telling the database to
display
everyone from Alabama first, then everyone from Alaska, then Arkansas,
etc. When displaying the Alabama records, display those from Abbeville,
then Abernant, then Adamsville. Within each of those cities, display
the records in order of Last Name.
Random Sorting: You may choose "Random" from
the bottom of the list to display the column in a different random
sequence with
each new search. This feature requires that, in MySQL,
"ORDER BY RAND(n)" deliver unique results for each value of "n". We
found
that this only worked properly in MySQL 4.0 and above. If you get
the same random sequence each time, you may need to ask your system
administrator to upgrade.
Use Expanding Folders: When this box is checked the
results will be grouped into expandable and collapsable folder images,
also
known as a "cascading menu". Click the folders below to see a
demonstration.
MA
Boston
Area
123
Main St. | Brookline
45
Truckee | Allston
North
Shore
1
Miami Place | Glouster
129
Sycamore | Marblehead
8
Breezeway | Ipswich
NH
Central
1012
Hilltop Ave | Concord
13
Cassandra Pl | Laconia
Southern
33
Bulluryde Ct. | Manchester
8
Durham Rd. | Durham
881
Castonder Dr. | Nashua
For example, if I sort my contacts by "State" and then "ID" and
check this box, a yellow folder will appear on the left side of the
screen for each State represented in the search results. When the
user clicks on a folder, it will expand to show the contects in that
State, sorted by ID. Furthermore, if I choose to sort by State,
then Region, then City, then ID, I will get a second set of folders
when I expand a given State, one for each County, and when I expand a
given County I will get
a folder for each City. This will work in Netscape 6 and above,
and
Internet Explorer 4 and above. In older browsers, the results will
appear
as a fully expanded menu tree. The JavaScript code behind this
feature
was written by Dynamic Drive (http://www.dynamicdrive.com)
.
This feature works by placing the results in an Unordered List
(<UL> <LI> item1 </LI> <LI> item2
</LI> </UL)
If no text is entered in the "Template for Search Results" then the
sequence of fields defined above will be displayed between a
pair of <LI> </LI> tags, seperated by a pipe " | " .
If text is entered in the "Template for Search Results" then the
template will be displayed in between a pair of <LI> </LI>
tags. You may need to limit the contents of your template
accordingly.
If "Include Form View" (below) is checked, the page icon to the
left of each item will be a link to the form view for that record.
You will probably want to set the number of results per page
much
higher than you would for a table view. The "number of results"
box
can be set as high as 32767, but keep in mind that all of the results
will
be loaded into the browser when the page loads, even though they are
not
displayed until the folder is opened. Too long a list could take
a
long time over slow connections or possibly freeze the browser.
Reverse Table Join
By default Webdata Pro assumes the "many side" table is the primary
table, displaying all records from the "many side" with matches from
the "one side" when available. This checkbox reverses that logic.
An example of the
default setup: A dog pedigree database.
Thousands of dogs are in the "dogdirectory" table. When available, the
owner, kennel, and handler are added from other tables.
kennel.id <1---M> dogdirectory.kennel_id
The database assumes, correctly, that the dogdirectory is the primary
table and when fields from both of these tables are selected in the
same layout, that you will want to search all of the dogs, regardless
of whether the kennel information has been added. You could even
group the results by kennel, presenting it as a list of kennels with
dogs under each. The SQL statement will read: SELECT [fields] FROM dogdirectory LEFT OUTER JOIN kennel ON
dogdirectory.kennel_id=kennel.id
An example of reverse table setup:
What if you had some kennels in the database that had no dogs
associated with them? If you want to display a list of kennels
then you need to specify that the table on the ONE SIDE is now the
primary table. By checking this box, the database will display
every kennel, regardless of whether it has dogs, and will
include the dogs under each kennel. However, it will not display dogs
that do not have a kennel filled in.
The SQL statement will read: SELECT
[fields] FROM kennel LEFT
OUTER JOIN dogdirectory ON
dogdirectory.kennel_id=kennel.id
Form View Button: When this box is checked, a button or
an image
will appear to the left of every row in the results table. When the
user
clicks on this, a new window will open with more information about the
selected
record. If you do not use a template for form view, the database will
display
a list of every field in every related table and its current value. If
you
prefer the look of a button, enter a label such as "Details" or "More
Info"
into the "Label for Button" box, and leave the "Image file for Button"
blank.
If you would like to design a graphic to use here, simply upload it to
your
web server, and enter the full URL (begin with http://) into the "Image
file for Button" box.
Next
Page/Previous Page Button Images:
If you enter the URL of an image into one of these boxes, the image
will be displayed
instead of the default button.
URL when no results
are found: By default, the words "No results were found" appear on
the screen if a search comes up empty. If you would like to define a
custom page which will come up after an empty search, simply type its
URL into
this box.
Bulk Mail: Syntax: $bulkmail[table.field,"text
or image tag"] For example, if the "contacts.email" field
contains the e-mail address of every contact in the database. I could
put this in the header or footer for search results: $bulkmail[contacts.email,'<IMG
SRC=/images/bulkmail.jpg>']
My "bulkmail.jpg" button image would appear as a link. When the user
clicks on the link the program returns a "compose mail" page, with
boxes for FROM, SUBJECT, MESSAGE, and one ATTACHMENT. The FROM
value
will be filled in automatically if the user has logged in.
Additionally, Admin may send bulk mail to members using
a link at the bottom of the results of the member data search form.
Click "Manage Members", then click "Go to members table", then
optionally enter some
search criteria and click "Search/modify". Finally, click the "Bulk
Mail"
button at the bottom of the page.
You must have the Mail::Bulkmail and the MIME::Lite modules
installed to use this feature.
Webteacher Software recommends that you allow your members or
whomever may receive mail to select whether they wish to receive such
mail when
they sign up. Such a field could be hardcoded into the search form of
the
layout to which you attach the $bulkmail tag. If admin will be sending
mail to members, one of the "USER#" fields could be used to retain a
"Yes"
or "No" value for the e-mail preferences. Sending unsolicited
e-mail
has legal consequences, can place your server in jeopardy,
and is just not a nice thing to do.
Templates: A template is used to
display your own HTML designs instead of the default tables. By
inserting
certain keywords into your HTML, as described just above the "Template
for Search Results", you can integrate the data from each found record
into your designs. For example, the following HTML would display an
employee's name and phone number in a telephone directory format:
<B>$data[employees.lastname],
$data[employees.firstname]</B>............<I>$data[employees.telephone]</I><BR>
If there is any text in either of the template boxes, the template will
be used instead of the default table.
The "Template for Search Results" will be repeated once for each
found record. This means that if you set the number of results per page
to 15, the contents of the "Template for Search Results" will appear
15 times, each time with the values from a different records where the
$data[table.field] tags are. If you want your search results to appear
in a table, you should put the <TABLE>; tag in the "Header for
search results" and put the </TABLE> tag in the "Sub-footer for
search results". Then define a single row in the "Template for Search
Results", for example:
<TR><TD>$data[employees.lastname]</TD><TD>$data[employees.firstname]</TD></TR>
$if ( ) statements: You can
make any chunk of HTML appear only when certain values meet your
criteria. The syntax of the $if statement is as follows:
Here are
the operators that Webdata uses:
$if
(x) -- if no operator is present, Webdata returns true unless the
field is empty or equal to zero.
$if
(x < y) -- if x is less than y
$if
(x <= y) -- if x is less than or equal to y
$if
(x > y) -- if x is greater than y
$if
(x >= y) -- if x is greater than or equal to y
$if
(x==y) -- if x is equal to y
$if
(x =~ /y/) if text string x contains y (not case sensitive). If you
know regular expressions
you can use them inside the slashes for more complex text searches.
$if (! any expression above) if the expresson begins
with an exclamation point, the true and false results are reversed.
$if (criteria) {result if true} else {result if false}
For example: Display blinking text if price is under $10
$if ($data[products.price] <= 9.99) {<BLINK>Under Ten
Dollars</BLINK>}
Display a default image named "noPhoto.gif" if the
"picture" field
is empty.
$if ($data[people.picture]) {
<IMG SRC="$data[people.picture]">
} else {
<IMG SRC="/images/noPhoto.gif">
}
Display "Health Item" if the description contains the word
"organic" or "health".
$if (($data[food.description] =~ /organic/) or
($data[food.description] =~ /health/)) {
<B><font
color=red>Health Item</font></B>
}
$if(!$data[people.email]=~/^[\w.-]+\@(?:[\w-]+\.)+\w+$/) {
No valid e-mail address
}
You may have as many nested "and" and "or" conditions as you like. For
example:
$if (($data[employees.status=~/full time/) or
(($data[employees.status]=~/part time/) and (employees.hours > 30)))
{
Eligible for health coverage
}
One thing that Webdata cannot do is have $if() statements nested
inside of other $if() statements. See Calculations below
for
an explanation of creating more advanced conditionals in JavaScript.
$query statements:
You can embed your own queries into the header, footer,
sub-footer, group header, or templates.
This is important because it allows you to embed additional
information such as grouped tables and related values which are not
part of the main template.
The command $query[table.field, table.field WHERE conditional
clause] will return the selected fields which match your
critera as a SUBSET of the user's search. This means that
if the user entered "landscape" into a field named
"business.category", and you wrote the $query like this:
$query[business.name,
business.telephone WHERE business.preferred=1]
the $query statement would be replaced with a list of business names
and phone numbers where "preferred=1" AND "category contains
landscape".
You can also include group functions by adding the GROUP="table.field"
clause like this:
$query[business.category, count(*) WHERE
business.preferred=1 GROUP="business.category"]
The above $query tag would present a list of how many preferred
businesses are in each category.
Likewise, the sort order is specified with ORDER="table.field".
$query[business.category, count(*) WHERE
business.preferred=1 ORDER="business.category"]
The following parameters may be included to control the layout
of the table.
BORDER, LABELS, BGCOLOR, COLOR1, COLOR2, CELLPADDING, CELLSPACING
A value for BORDER is required to indicate that the results
should appear in a table, otherwise the $query tag will simply be
replaced with plain text. Each of these parameters must be
followed by an = sign, and the value must be contained in quotation
marks, for example:
$query[business.category,count(*) WHERE
business.preferred=1 GROUP="business.category"
LABELS="Category, # of Preferred
Businesses" BORDER="1"
BGCOLOR="WHITE" COLOR1="YELLOW"
COLOR2="WHITE"
CELLPADDING="10" CELLSPACING="0"]
Important: The quotations marks around each
value is
required.
SELECTALL="1" can be included in search templates and form
templates to force the query to perform a search of the entire database
regardless of the user's search criteria.
Other Examples: If, for instance, you wanted to
display the average age of the members in your database based on the
"table.birthdate" field, you would want to use the $query
function. Although Webdata Pro has a $AVG function, and a
$YEARSSINCE function, you need the power and flexibility of the native
SQL functions to achieve that goal. The function would be written:
<B>Average Age: </B>
$query[AVG(TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(table.birthdate))/365.25]
<B>Number of members under 21</B>
$query[count(*) WHERE
(TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(table.birthdate))/365.25 < 21]
A complete list of functions is available in the documentation
for your database platform.
Technical Notes: The phrase $query[ column
or functions list WHERE criteria ] is transposed into the
SELECT statement which the database used for the main search. The
list of tables and the JOIN criteria is handled automatically, and the
WHERE conditions specified in the $query statement is APPENDED to the
WHERE conditions specified by the user. For example, if the user
searched for people living in California, and the main results table
was based on this:
SELECT table.firstname,
table.lastname, table.telephone FROM table WHERE table.state='CA';
then the query example above for people under 21 would send
this statement to the database:
SELECT count(*)
FROM table
WHERE (table.state='CA')
AND
((TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(table.birthdate))/365.25 < 21);
If the SELECTALL parameter were used,
for example:
$query[count(*) WHERE (TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(table.birthdate))/365.25
< 21 SELECTALL="1"]
Then the original WHERE clause would be discarded, returning a
search of the entire database:
SELECT count(*)
FROM table
WHERE
((TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(table.birthdate))/365.25 < 21);
$hitcount: As long as you have
enabled the "search logs" option on the preferences
page, you can enter $hitcount in the Search Results template, the Form
template, and the Member's Maintenance template. It will be replaced
with the number of times that record has been viewed.
$select statements: $select[statement]where
"statement" is everything that would come AFTER the word SELECT in
an SQL statement.The $select statement is a simple way to get a value
or list of values from the database without the embedded criteria and
joins built into the $query statement. While $query is useful for
building nested tables pertaining to your search results, it can be
cumbersome
when all you want is the result of a simple SQL statement. You
can
use $select[count(*) FROM _members]
to display the number of members in the database, or type $select[max(amount) FROM sales] to return the
highest sale amount in the database.
The following parameters may be included to control the layout of the
table.
BORDER, LABELS, BGCOLOR, COLOR1, COLOR2, CELLPADDING, CELLSPACING
For example: $select[id,name,price FROM products BORDER="1"
LABELS="SKU,Name,Price" BGCOLOR="white" COLOR1="yellow"]
$escapeselect
statements: $escapeselect[statement] is the same as
$select (above) except that the results are escaped for use in HTTP
queries.
$modify and $delete:
The $modify and $delete tags are to be used only when you wish to allow
members to modify and delete records from the search results or form
view in a layout. This is designed to be an alternative
to
the default "Manage Data" view so that you may customize the look of
the
results page using layout templates while offering the members the
ability
to modify and delete. You may put a link to a layout with the
$modify
and $delete tags in it on a member's custom home page. You will almost
certainly want to check "Limit member searches to only their own
records?"
at the top of the layout so that you do not confuse members by offering
them search and delete options for records they do not own (the
permissions
will protect the data in any case), and make sure that this layout is
only selected in the profile of members that you wish to give
modify/delete
options to. Members will get a permissions error if they try to
modify or delete a record not owned by them unless the "manage all" box
in checked for that table in the member's profile. The syntax for
the tags is:
The table name is required because, if a search contains a mix
of data
from several related tables, the database needs to know from which
table you are deleting the current record.
Examples:
$modify[resumes,Click here to modify the
resume] Click here to modify the resume
$modify[jobopenings,<IMG SRC="/images/modify.gif">] (your
image as a link to modify the current record)
$modify[pictures] (a
default button is created if no text is specified)
$delete[resumes,Click here to delete the
resume] Click here to delete the resume
$delete[jobopenings,<IMG SRC="/images/deleteJob.jpg">]
(your image as a link to delete the current record)
$delete[pictures] (a
default button is created if no text is specified)
$member: The $member tag will
display information about the current member that is logged into the
database.
For example: <B>Welcome $member[firstname]
$member[lastname]</B> will display a welcome message to the user
with his/her name. For a complete list of member fieldnames, go
to the SQL entry page and type:
DESCRIBE _members;
$escapemember: Type
$escapemember[memberfield] to display the value of $member[memberfield]
in escaped format.
For example, if you wish to import $member[user3] into a JavaScript
variable, but you are concerned that someone may have typed:
(I am 5'11" tall.) into the box. You could not do this:
var description = "$member[user3]";
which would become: var description="I am 5'11" tall"
nor
var description = '$member[user3]';
for the same reason. But you could type:
var description = unescape("$escapemember[user3]");
which would become: var
desciption=unescape("I%20am%205%2711%22%20tall");
and JavaScript's unescape() function would convert the spaces and
quotes back to their original value.
$order: The $order tag will
generate a "Sort by" link in the header, footer, sub-footer, or search
results template. These links appear automatically when the default
layout table is displayed. If you are using the search results template
you will need
the $order tag to give your users the ability to re-sort their search
results. If the link is clicked a second time it will reverse the order
of the sort.
USAGE:
$order[table.field,optional text]
EXAMPLES:
$order[products.saleprice] Sale
Price(generates the field's display label as a link)
$order[products.saleprice,Click here to
sort by price] Click
here to sort by price
$order[products.saleprice,<IMG
SRC="/images/sortbyprice.gif" BORDER=0>]
Thumbnails: If a thumbnail size
was defined on the Preferences page prior to the uploading of any
image, a corresponding file with "_tn_" at the start of the file name
is created in the same directory as the image. You can easily
display the
thumbnail for any image by entering "$thumbnail[table.field]" into the
template, where field is the name of the image field. The server
must have ImageMagick and the Image::Magick Perl module (aka
PerlMagick)
to use this feature.
Distance: If a field is selected
next to "Search by zip code distance",
and there is a value for "_homeZip" on the search page, the "$distance"
tag will be replaced with the distance, in miles, to the zip code
indicated in the current record.
$COUNT, $SUM, and $AVG:
Each of these items will display a total based on the values in a given
field for all of the found records combined. If you want to
display the number of found records, it is a good idea to use the
primary key field with $count, since the primary key can never be
empty. $count[table.keyfield] will display the number of found
records. $sum[table.quantity]
would display the sum of all of the numbers in the quantity
field.
$avg[table.quantity] would display the average value for the quantity
field.
$dateCreated: Type
$dateCreated[table] into a template to display the date when a
record was first added
to that table.
In a simple query of a "press_releases" table, you could simply insert
"$dateCreated[press_releases]" into either the search results template
or the form view template. In a more complex query of "events",
"organizations" and "districts",
where (event <M--------1> organization
<M---------1> district) you could include information for
each event about the organization that is running it, and that
organization's district. It would be necessary to type
"$dateCreated[event]" to tell Webdata to show the date that the
event was added, not the date the organization or district was added.
Calculations: Rather than
reinvent the wheel, Webdata allows JavaScript to do all of its
calculations. The simple JavaScript commands necessary to perform a
calculation will work on over 99.9% of the browsers in use today.
JavaScript comes with
a rich set of math, text, and date functions of which you can take
advantage.
To display a calculation, determine where in your template you would
like the calculation to appear, and place a pair of script tags with
your calculation and a document.write() statement between them.
Example 1: Display quantity times price:
<B>Total Sale: </B>$
<SCRIPT>
var qty=$data[sales.quantity];
var price=$data[products.price];
var sale=qty*price;
document.write(sale);
</SCRIPT>
or, the abbreviated version
<SCRIPT>document.write($data[sales.quantity]*$data[products.price])</SCRIPT>
Example 2: Display weeks of service
<B>Years of service: </B>
<SCRIPT>
var start=$days[employees.startdate];
var now=$now;
document.write(Math.floor((now-start)/7));
</SCRIPT>
$days[table.any date field] will be substituted by Webdata with
the number of days since the year 0 leading up to that date.
$now will be substituted by Webdata with the number of days
since year 0 to the current date.
Math.floor() is just a function to round down so that we don't
display the years to 9 decimal places.
$daysSince[table.field] and $yearsSince[table.field]:
These functions will display the amount of days or years that have
elapsed between the date value in the specified field and the
present time. For example: This employee is
$yearsSince[employees.birthDate] years old.
Both functions display one decimal place of accuracy. If you need a
different format, see the JavaScript solution above under
"calculations".
$ENV[environment variable]: Displays
the contents
of the specified environment variable.
For example, put $ENV[REMOTE_ADDR] into a template to display the
user's IP address.
$user_data[form field]: Displays
the contents of the specified form field value on the user's search
page.
$include[URL]: Enter the URL of
any web
page to insert that page into your layout. For example,
if you have your header navigation bar in a file at
"http://myserver.com/headerbar.html" then you can
put $include[http://myserver.com/header.html]
into the "header for search results" to put that bar at the
top of your reports. This feature requires the LWP
perl module. The LWP module is part of the libwww bundle
which is a standard part of Perl5. Ask your system administrator about
it.
$escape[table.field] works exactly
like $data[table.field] except that the result will be hex encoded for
inserting into a URL to another script. For example, if to create
a link to Yahoo's maps, first look at the syntax for any address, such
as: "39940 Mission Blvd. Fremont, CA 94539" and see that it returns
with
this in the location box::
You will notice that the long URL contains
"addr=39940+Mission+Blvd" and "csz=Fremont%2C+CA+94539"
The plus signs where the spaces were, and the "%2C" where the comma
after "Fremont" was are examples of escaping.
You could create a link to map any address like this:
With a little bit of experimenting, you might discover that it
works just as well like this:
http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?addr=$escape[vendor.address]&csz=$escape[vendor.zip]
To display the value of a member field in
escaped format, use $escapemember[memberfield]
instead of $member[memberfield].
$format[table.field,decimals,E]
The $format[] tag is used to display floating
point numbers using a fixed number of decimal places, and conventional
commas to seperate the thousands every 3 digits. If no value is
supplied for "decimals", it will default to 2 decimal places. If
the letter "E" is included as the third parameter, the program will use
a comma for the decimal point, which is the convention in Europe
outside of the UK.
$format[table.price,2,E] - 29 956,50
(E for European formatting, uses
a comma for the decimal place and
a space for the thousands seperator)
The "Insert Field Assistant"
button is there to help reduce typos and save you time looking up
field names. When you click "Insert Field Assistant" a window will
appear
with a list of every field in the database. When you click on one of
the fields, the $data[table.field] tag will appear in the box below.
The box will also self-highlight so that you can copy it by hitting
[ctrl-c]
and then paste it into the template.
The "Template for Form View" will display your custom HTML in a
new window when the user clicks the "view" button.
Forms
When the "Form View" button or image is clicked, a new
window will open to display more details about the selected
record.
If the "Template for Form View" box is empty, Webdata will create a
table with the value of every field in the primary table and each
related
table for that field. If there is a value in the "Template for
Form
View" box, the new window will contain only the text in the template
box.
This makes it easy to design a page in an HTML program, complete with
style
sheets, and paste the HTML into the template box.
Shopping Cart
To use the shopping cart, you first must define fields in
the table which contain the product ID, the product name, product
description, and product price.
You may also create a field for the product's weight (if you will be
calculating shipping costs for UPS or FedEx), and a checkbox field for
whether an item is taxable is advisable if only some of your items are
subject to sales tax in-state. For example, in Massachusetts,
Food and Clothing are not taxed, so a camping supplies shopping cart
would need to create a "taxable" checkbox to indicate that the jacket
is not
taxed, but the camping stove is.
If you choose to define an "inventory" field, the database will
automatically deduct the quantity of each sale from the amount in that
field. When the quantity reaches 1 or less, the administrator (defined
at the top of the page) is notified via e-mail that they need to
restock.
Once you have created the necessary fields, go to the layout
which you will use for people to search and shop your products.
Check "use shopping cart", save your preferences, and then click the
"configure shopping cart" link. The "Configure Shopping Cart"
page is very straightforward. Use the first 6 select lists to indicate
which field is to be used for product ID, name, description, price,
weight, and taxable. If you have a secure web server, you may
choose to save the data on your server for retrieval (credit card
numbers are encoded). If you would like real-time processing of
the credit cards, we recommend you choose one of the card processing
services. You will need to get an account with the service you
choose. Choose the shipping and tax options you
need, click "Save Cart Settings" and then go to search the layout in
which
you enabled the cart. You will see an "add to cart" button next
to every item.
Authorize Net users: As of version 1.52h, Webdata Pro
uses the
SIM method to submit orders to the Authorize Net page. You will need to
upload
the "SimLib.pm" and "SimHMAC.pm" perl modules (included in the zip
file)
to your cgi-bin. You will also need to generate a Transaction ID at the
Authorize Net "settings" page, and enter it in the box provided.
A link will automatically appear on the main administration page
to retrieve the orders. After you fill each order, click the
"mark order as filled" link, and the item will be hidden unless you
click
"show all orders" at the bottom of the page.
Replace text within
layout(s)
The find and replace mechanism for
layouts was released in version 1.63. It is extremely useful if you
need to replace every occurrence of a table name or a domain name.
Because layouts are comprised of multiple text boxes, it would be
cumbersome to export to a word processor, perform a replace, and import
the text back in for every field. This utility allows you to replace
the text in all fields at once. From the "Manage Layouts" page,
click "Replace text within layout(s)". Then, [ctrl]-click on the layout
or layouts that you wish to replace text in. Next, enter the old text
string and new text string into the boxes below. When you submit the
form, the script will show you which fields contain your text string
and prompt you to confirm.
Members
Members are users with a unique username and password that
may log into the database. Each member may complete a profile
which contains the standard contact information, plus 10 more fields
which can be defined by the administrator in the "Preferences"
screen. If you choose to allow a member to add records into any
table, the member's ID (usually their e-mail address) is saved with the
record. It is then possible to display any information about the
member that added each record in the search results template or form
template.
From the administration screen, click on "Manage Members".
You will be taken to a list of members, with the option to add, delete,
or edit a selected member. Members that are used as a group
leader will appear first and in red text. When you choose to Add or
Edit a member, you are taken to the "Member Data Page." The top
portion of the
Member Data Page consists of contact information, followed by any
custom
boxes which the administrator has defined. This information may
be changed by the member any time from the "update profile" button
which
appears on the default member page. The bottom portion of the
page
may only be set by the administrator. The privileges for members
make it possible to offer a different database experience to each
member,
or to combine members into groups.
Using Member Fields
When a member logs in to the database, their e-mail address
is saved in a cookie. Every time the member adds a record, the record
saves the member's e-mail address in a hidden field named
"_owner". This serves two useful functions. First, the
Webdata can make sure that the member can only modify or delete records
that she added. Second, it is possible to design your layouts so
that users can search and display information about the member that
added each record. For example, if you have several comic book
dealers adding records to one large database. You could allow the
user to search for comic books entered by someone that lives in a
certain State, and you could display the
name and contact information of the member that added each comic
book. Since the member's key data (their e-mail address) is saved
in the _owner field, the fields for displaying the firstname and
lastname are labeled "table._owner.firstname"
and "table._owner.lastname". Each of these combinations is an
option in the "Search Fields" and "Sequence of [report] Fields" boxes
on the Layout page.
You also have 10 Member fields which you can label yourself.
The input boxes for Member Labels are defined on the "Preferences" page.
Regardless of the label you enter, the true NAME of these
fields is "user1, user2, user3, etc". You will need to select the
correct "user#" field when adding a custom Member field to a
layout. For example, let's say you wanted each comic book dealer
to announce their specialty. You could insert "Specialty"
in the "user1" box on the "Preferences" page. Then, when you
select "table._owner.user1" from the "Search Fields" list, a box
labeled "Specialty" would appear on the search page. You can also
select the size of each user
box on the preferences page from a list of standard sizes.
Exporting Member Data
From the "Manage Members" page, the administrator can choose to export
the entire _members table as either comma or tab delimited text. This
may be useful for backing up the database, or importing the member data
into a 3rd party program such as address labeling software.
Member Groups - If you want to
assign the same privileges to 1500 members it is much easier to use
groups than to enter the preferences into each member's profile.
Plus, if you
need to make a change to each member's privileges, and you are using
groups, you only need to make the change once. To create a group,
first create a new member, and enter the group name as the member's
e-mail address.
Enter the group name again as the member's first name. You may
leave
the rest of the contact info boxes blank. Skip down to the
Privileges
section and set the group privileges. Now, when you add or edit
any
member, choose the group name from the select list next to "Member
Groups." This will override the remainder of the Privileges
section, anything else you select or check in this section will be
ignored.
Layouts: If this member has
search privileges, select the layout(s) which s/he may use.
Because
a layout includes some, but usually not all, of the fields in the
database, you can restrict what information a member is privy to by
restricting
which layouts they may use. If only 1 layout is selected, the
search
button on the member page will go directly to the search page for that
layout (whether that is a default search page or a custom page depends
on whether there is a value in the "URL for Search Again" box in that
layout). If 2 or more layouts are selected the member will
presented with a layout selection box after clicking "Search". If
no layouts are selected, the "Search" button will not appear on the
member page at all.
Default URL: If there is a value
in this box, the member will be taken directly to this URL instead of
loading the default member page. You may choose SAVE-AS on the
default member page, customize it to match your site, and then enter
the URL here. You could also enter the URL of a specific custom
search page so that the member would go directly into a search without
seeing the member page first. There are many ways to customize
the
member's experience by creating a custom member page.
Header and Footer: The
HTML contained in these boxes will appear at the top and bottom of the
default member page, the search pages, and the "update profile" page.
Template for Member
Data page: The HTML contained in this box will appear instead of
the default Contact Information page when the member signs up or clicks
"Update Profile" to change their password, address, or phone number.
To indicate
where Webdata should create a text box for the "firstname" field with
the current value already filled in, just type $field[firstname]
into the template.The "Insert Field Assistant" can reduce
typos
by generating the tags for you.
Retrieve Shopping
Cart Orders: If you are using the shopping cart and select to save
orders on the server rather than use a payment service, there will be a
link on the main administration screen to view the orders, including
credit card
numbers. Note: Please only use a secure SSL connection to connect to
this
page to avoid sharing your customer's credit card numbers with prying
eyes.
If your client needs a way to view the orders without logging in
as
admin, you may check this box on his/her profile and then create a link
on
his/her custom member page by copying the one on the main
administration
page. For security reasons, the member should always log in and
then
click the link to view the orders. It will not render the page if the
referrer
does not match the script URL or the secure URL defined in the cart.
Custom Member Fields: In
addition to the contact information which Webdata can store for each
Member, you
may define up to 10 more fields which appear on the member profile
page. The size option defines how big each box will be when it is
displayed
on the member profile page. To define a pop-up list, choose "List..."
from the bottom of the size choices list, and a prompt box will allow
you
to enter the possible values seperated by a comma. For example:
"Red,Green,Blue".
Table Privileges Grid:
Use the checkboxes to determine, for each table in the database,
whether the member may add records, modify or delete records they have
added, import from delimited text files, or export to a delimited text
file.
Manage All: When this box is unchecked, the "add",
"modify",
and "delete" permissions refer only to records which are "owned" by
that
member. If "Manage All" is selected for any given table, that
member
becomes a "super-user", with the ability to modify or delete records
owned
by other members (provided "modify" and "delete" are checked).
Limit to 1 Record: When this box is checked, when a member
chooses to manage data in this table, they are not taken to the "Data
Entry" page, but instead are taken directly to the "Maintenance Screen"
for their one and only record.
Custom Member Page: You can create a custom HTML page to be
displayed when a member first logs in. To create a custom member page,
first
log in as a member and choose SAVE-AS from the FILE menu when the
default member page appears. Save the page to your hard disk as an html
page and modify it with your favorite HTML editor. Finally,
upload
it anywh
