Processing Functionality
What processing functionality can you expect in a web page database?
A basic web page database is able to read a sequential file, provide a list of its records and allow the user to display the detail of a selected record. This may not sound innovative to you until you try one. You will see that this simple design minimizes space on the screen and provides a fast user interface to search, scroll and display many records. Just the fact that the user can stay on one HTML page has a calming effect on the hurried web surfer. The speed in which data is served to the user in comparison to a typical HTML page makes a web page database a valuable tool.
Beyond the basics, a web page database system may support Email addresses to initiate the client computer's Email program. URL's may be supported with buttons or predefined unique selectable text fields to transfer to the URL. Some systems may have image display capabilities and advanced image manipulation like zooming, scaling, rotating and scrolling within the image frame. A sorting facility will allow the user to sort data alphabetically or numerically. Additional clever techniques like field zooming, which allows the user to change the selection list field to any field in the database, differentiate web page database software. Text areas within a database usually provide a text wrap facility, though this is not a standard Java feature.
Searching for records is a major function of a web page database. You may be able to search for records by typing in a specific text value or you may be presented the available search criteria in drop down boxes, check boxes, radio buttons or lists. The user may search for records that are alphabetically or numerically greater than or less than the selected value. An example of this is "Find me all computers for sale that are less than $2000, are portable, have at least a 2 speed CD-ROM and have a Pentium Intel chip of at least 90 MHz ". In the future you can expect to see search criteria that enables sophisticated pattern matches enabling searches like "Find all the records where the employee name looks like "*son" because I'm not sure if the name was Johnson or Hanson or Jefferson".
Some web page databases exist as floating windows on top of the calling HTML document or have floating help text windows. This feature allows the visitor to use two windows at once, maximizing the window as the need arises.
|
