Databases in the Internet

Databases in the Internet – Exercises
David Billard – University of Geneva, Switzerland

Thema: Using the Araneus software package (University of Roma 3, Italy) to create a web site from a relational database

We will use a pre-filled database created with MS Access. This database « department » is in the directory « AraneusWSDS\sites\database\ ».

It is a very simple relational database, with 4 tables:

Course(CourseName, Description, Instructor, Type)

Person(Name, Position, email, Phone, Photo)

PersonInGroup(Name, GroupName)

ResearchGroup(GroupName, Topics)

The database contains some records.

The goal of the exercise is :

to create a web site, from this database, using the Araneus Software ;

to create a web site, from a database of your own.

Registering the database in ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)

This step is necessary for Araneus to connect to the database

Select Start Menu -> ODBC -> User DNS

Select MS Access 97 Database

Select Configure

Data Source Name : Department

Description : Department Database

Select Select

Choose the database « Program Files\Araneus\AraneusWSDS\sites\database\department »

Click OK

Using the Araneus Shell

The Araneus software is shell-based (you must type the commands inside a window, and they will be executed once at a time).

You must run the shell inside a MSDos window using

shell select sites\dept1\dept.pl

(in the Program Files\Araneus\AraneusWSDS directory)

This file is the description of your web site, in a textual form (look at the LIST-OF and LINK-TO keywords).

Then you must select the kind of output (HTML or XML)

shell format html

Template Creation

From the PL file (description of the web site) and the STY file (style of presentation), generation of a set of page templates :

shell tpl

The templates are stored in a folder named TelemacoTemplates.

The TPL files can be modified, to change the layout of the pages.

Page style generation

From the TPL files, generates the final page styles (ATS) :

shell sty

Site generation

From the page styles and the database, using the ODBC, generates the web site :

shell generate

The web site is created.

Modifications

Generate a new web site, from the same database, by using the look in dept2.

Create a new directory (for example sites\dept3) and create a new dept.pl file (using as an example the original dept.pl file). Generate a new web site, from the same database, but with a different look.

You can take examples at: http://www.dia.uniroma3.it/Araneus/