Publishing Dynamic Information

Reference: 1.
0, Issued (2nd September 2004)
Publishing Dynamic Information
Publishing Dynamic
Information
Graham Butcher
Graham Butcher
Graham Butcher
The purpose of this project is to investigate technology that can publish,

specifically, dynamic information, using a common interface such as a Web
Browser. An important factor in doing this project is to help the Authors
Cost Centre, the Data and IP Integration and Test Centre which is part of
BT Exact.
Graham Butcher
Graham Butcher
Graham Butcher
Graham Butcher
Contents
Chapter 1 : Introduction and Objectives....................................................................1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
Project and Work Objectives............................................................................1

Document structure......................................................................................... 1
Readership...................................................................................................... 2
Technical Assumptions....................................................................................2
Stakeholders of the report, Motivation for writing and Business Case............2
Chapter 2 : Overview of available technologies and assessment of their suitability. 4

2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Web Server Side Coding Methods...................................................................4
2.2.1 CGI Type Solutions..........................................................................4
2.2.2 Solutions using Apache, PHP and MySQL........................................6
2.2.3 Simple Microsoft/ASP type solutions using IIS, PWS, MS Access.....8
2.3 Total Development Environment Methods....................................................11
2.3.1 Cold Fusion Server and Development Environment...................11
2.3.2 Advanced MS solutions using Visual Studio.NET...........................18
2.3.3 Third Party, Software Development Tools ....................................22
2.4 Enterprise Wide Systems..............................................................................24
2.5 Other topics relevant to producing Database driven Web Pages..................25
2.5.1
2.5.2
2.5.3
2.5.4
Client versus Server side scripting and programs........................25

Use of ODBC for connecting to databases....................................25
Whats Oracles contributions to the discussion?..........................26
Security........................................................................................26
2.6 A comparison of different solutions..............................................................26

Chapter 3: An overview of the three working examples produced during the project
29
3.1 Inventory and Calibration System Concert.................................................29
3.2 Enhanced Lab Equipment, Asset Register UKIP..........................................31
3.3 Enhanced Document Management System XGH1......................................33
Chapter 4: Details of the first example, Concert Test Equipment & Calibration Details
solution.................................................................................................................... 36
4.1 Requirements............................................................................................... 36
4.2 Background..................................................................................................36
4.3 Problem analysis........................................................................................... 37
4.4 Functional analysis of web-access to DBs.....................................................41
4.5 Practical advice............................................................................................41
4.6 Heuristics...................................................................................................... 41
4.7 High level development................................................................................41
4.8 Scalability..................................................................................................... 41
4.9 Ease of maintenance....................................................................................41
4.10 Technologies v non-functional requirements...............................................41
4.11 Design and Development of Solution..........................................................41
Chapter 5: Details of second example, the UKIP Asset Register...............................43
Graham Butcher
5.1 Requirements............................................................................................... 43
5.2 Background..................................................................................................43
5.3 Problem analysis........................................................................................... 43
5.4 Functional analysis of web-access to DBs.....................................................47
5.5 Practical advice............................................................................................47
5.6 Heuristics...................................................................................................... 47
5.7 High level development................................................................................47
5.8 Scalability..................................................................................................... 47
5.9 Ease of maintenance....................................................................................47
5.10 Design and Development of Solution..........................................................47
Chapter 6: Details of third example, Centres Documentation Management System
50
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
Requirements............................................................................................... 50
Background..................................................................................................50
Problem analysis........................................................................................... 50
Design and Development of Solution............................................................53
Chapter 7: Evaluation of Solutions...........................................................................55

7.1 Evaluation of solution 1................................................................................55
Chapter 8: Recommendations..................................................................................58
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
General Recommendations...........................................................................58
Recommendations from Solution 1..............................................................58
Recommendations from Solution 2...............................................................58
Recommendations from Solution 3...............................................................59
Chapter 9: Conclusions............................................................................................ 61
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
Conclusions from Solution 1.........................................................................61

Overall Conclusions......................................................................................61
9.4.1 Use of Total Development Environments...........................................61

9.4.2 Reliability and Robustness of Solutions Produced..............................62
9.4.3 Use of Skills Developed during the Project for the benefit of the Test
Centre62
Chapter 10: Acknowledgements..............................................................................63
Chapter 11: References........................................................................................... 63
Chapter 12: Appendix A Source Code for all Solutions..........................................64
Chapter 13: Appendix B Glossary..........................................................................64
Chapter 14: Appendix C CodeCharge Product Feature Details...............................66
Application Builder..............................................................................................66
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)........................................................66
Form and Component Builders............................................................................66
Visual Query Builder............................................................................................ 67
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Security Management/Role-based Access Control...............................................68

Support for Multiple Programming Languages.....................................................68
Extensibility......................................................................................................... 68
Multiple Database Connections...........................................................................68
Microsoft FrontPage Integration...........................................................................68
Integration with Other Products...........................................................................69
Extensive Database Support................................................................................69
Application Templates (Solutions)........................................................................70
Custom Code and Actions....................................................................................70
Code Generation Engine......................................................................................71
Sample Databases...............................................................................................72
Chapter 15: Appendix D ColdFusion Features........................................................72
Figures
Figure 1 - Example of an Application that uses CGI and Perl, Autosave Router
Configurations........................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2 - An example of WODA.................................................................................6
Figure 3 - Web interface for MySQL management and administration.......................8
Figure 4 - An example of ASP 3.0...............................................................................9
Figure 5 - MacroMedia's own description of ColdFusion plus the Price.....................11
Figure 6 - An Example of CFML.................................................................................14
Figure 7 - CFML page............................................................................................... 16
Figure 8 - CFML with error........................................................................................16
Figure 9 - Microsoft's pricing for Visual Studio.Net...................................................18
Figure 10 - Web Matrix, design window....................................................................20
Figure 11 - SQL Server control panel........................................................................20
Figure 12 - Details of CodeCharge Studio's pricing structure ..................................22
Figure 13 - CodeCharge Studio IDE..........................................................................23
Figure 14 - PHP - ASP.Net comparison table from ref [5]..........................................27
Figure 15 - Author's comparison table.....................................................................28
Figure 17 - View of Assets Table...............................................................................30
Figure 18 - Login, obtain password page..................................................................30
Figure 19 - Simple search page of UKIP Inventory....................................................31
Figure 20 - Power search of UKIP Inventory..............................................................32
Figure 21 - Documentation System, database chooser............................................33
Figure 22 - Documentation System, search for "Peakflow dos"................................34
Figure 23 - Show versions of "Peakflow DOS upgrade ...".........................................34
Figure 24 - Requested document retrieved to users web browser...........................35
Figure 25 - Starting point, existing NVT database - MS access.................................37
Figure 26 - Existing database, view of Assets..........................................................37
Figure 27 - Flowchart showing choices made for first solution.................................39
Figure 28 Features provided with Easily.co.uk Web hosting...................................40
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Figure 29 Original user interface to UKIP Inventory database................................44

Figure 30 - Analysis of tables and relationships in UKIP Inventory database............44
Figure 31 - Flowchart showing decisions made for solution 2..................................46
Figure 32 - Analysis of FileStore "back end" database..............................................51
Figure 33 - Flowchart to show decisions made for solution 3...................................52
Figure 34 - CodeCharge Query Builder, covering 3 tables........................................53
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Copyright
British Telecommunications plc, 2004. All rights reserved.
BT maintains that all reasonable care and skill has been used in the compilation of
this publication. However, BT shall not be under any liability for loss or damage
(including consequential loss) whatsoever or howsoever arising as a result of the
use of this publication by the reader, his servants, agents or any third party.
All third-party trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
Document history
Revision
Author
Date
Notes
0.A
Graham
Butcher
21st
October
2003
First Draft after presentation
0.B
Graham
Butcher
31st May
2004
Second Draft
0.C
Graham
Butcher
22nd
August
2004
Third Draft
1.0
Graham
Butcher
2nd
Septemb
er 2004
Issued version
Distribution
Distribution will be controlled by:
Graham Butcher
Orion 3rd Floor, Adastral Park, Ipswich IP5 3 RE
graham.butcher@bt.com
tel: +44(0) 1473 649059
Graham Butcher
Abstract
The skills required to be able to publish dynamic information on the Internet or an
Intranet are as important today (2004) as using a word processor or business
software was in the late 1980s. Those individuals and organisations that had (and
have) these skills command a distinct advantage over their competitors in the
business world.
The purpose of this project is to investigate technology that can publish, this kind of
information, using a common interface such as a Web Browser. The main objective
of the project however, is to provide tools and skills that can benefit the Authors
work area - the Data and IP Integration and Test Centre which is part of BT Exact at
Adastral Park.
Within the Test Centre there are many teams doing a variety of activities these
include providing the test environment, testing itself, managing resources and
dealing and communicating with end customers. Normally information relating to
Inventories, Booking Systems, Configurations, Documentation, Ownership and other
related topics is held in databases. If this information were permanently and
instantly available, everyone would benefit.
The aim of this project is therefore to look at different methods of implementing the
display of non static information held in databases by using dynamic web pages.
Three examples were produced for the project, adding value to the Authors
workplace.
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Declaration
This dissertation is a result of my independent investigation. The portions of the

report that are indebted to other sources have been referenced in the normal way.
This dissertation has not been accepted in substance for any degree and is not
concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree.
Signed:
Date:
________________________________
__________________________
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Chapter 1 : Introduction and Objectives

This section covers such things as separating the project objectives from normal
work objectives, the document structure, the readership the document is aimed at
and the type of people who would benefit from reading the report the
stakeholders.
1.1 Project and Work Objectives
Project Objectives
There are three main project objectives. The first is to find ways of publishing
information within the Authors work areas. This information will be specifically
dynamic information. Publishing can be defined in this case as making information
available to a chosen audience through a common means - without specialised
software or dedicated programs. If specialised software or programs were to be
used, they might need specialised installation and upgrading. In practice what is
meant by a common means is a Web Browser. By dynamic information, the
meaning for the purpose of this project is information held in databases that is
updated by a means separate from its publication and presentation.
In practice, this could mean, for example, displaying and searching a live inventory
database (to a chosen audience) where updating that database would be kept
separate from its display. The viewers would always see the latest information
whereas the updaters of the information would not have to think about the
presentation of the information ie they would not have to update the web page or
web site.
The second objective is to step back from the Authors environment and look into all
methods available - at the time of writing. Also investigated are reasons why one
method is preferred over another, depending on the situation.
The final objective is to produce some working examples which can be used in the
Authors work area hopefully to the benefit of all.
Work Objectives
During the period when the project was being researched the Author had several
roles. These ranged from Managing Test Labs and Reference Models, to Testing
International SDH Bandwidth and, finally, Co-ordinating Test Teams in the UKIP area.
One common denominator to all these roles however, was a need to convey
information. The tools that were expected to be used were such things as email,
Word documents, databases and spreadsheets.
Another common requirement in all three situations - was keeping equipment
inventories. A common situation that arose was for people to wish to know the
whereabouts of test equipment so items could be borrowed when not in use or
booked for future testing.
To summarise, the Authors work objectives were:
Manage Test Labs bookings, configurations, inventories, safety etc.
Carry out Global Testing of High Bandwidth SDH, super-highways as well

doing the testing, keep track of test equipment and the calibration of
instruments.
Co-ordinate infrastructure for Test Teams in the UKIP test area improve
documentation and flow of information across the area.
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1.2 Document structure

This introduction includes the Project Objectives separated from normal Work
objectives, Readership Aims, Technical Assumptions, who the Stakeholders of the
Report are and the Motivation for writing the report. Section 2 steps back from the
Project and looks at categories of solutions making suggestions about choices of
technologies such as languages, platforms, web servers and Development
Environments. Section 3 is an overview of the three working examples produced.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 document in more detail, the production, problem solving and
decisions made to produce each of these solutions. Sections 7, 8 and 9 cover the
Evaluations, Recommendations and Conclusions of the three respective solutions.
The final Chapters, sections 11-15 cover such things as References, Source Code,
Glossary of Terms used and Product Features of CodeCharge Studio and ColdFusion
MX.
1.3 Readership
In the early part of the project the readership was aimed at other Lab Managers who
frequently needed to display information about such things as lab test equipment
and bookings. Later on as the scope of the project broadened it became apparent
that there were many other uses of the skills and techniques investigated that could
benefit a wider audience. The readership of this report is therefore aimed at:
Lab Managers wishing to make information available to colleagues and

customers.
Managers or Project Leaders wishing to commission bespoke

publicising/publishing Systems.
Database specialists and developers who seek to explore new presentational

methods.
Web site managers who wish to enhance their web pages with more
information ie database based and searchable.
Anyone wishing to publicise dynamic information on an intranet or the

internet.
Anyone wishing to Manage information Minimising holding, Maximising

Access.
1.4 Technical Assumptions

A high level of technical knowledge is not assumed for use of this document. A
basic knowledge of the following will be required:
An elementary knowledge of HTML, tags and mark-up languages in general.
A basic knowledge of the components that make up Databases tables,

queries, records, views, links etc
Some knowledge of programming ie the difference between a compiled

language and an interpreted one.
Some knowledge of Operating Systems such as Microsoft Windows, Solaris

and Linux
1.5 Stakeholders of the report, Motivation for writing and Business Case
Stakeholders
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The main stakeholders of this report are:

1. Work colleagues wishing to publish (dynamic information) within their work
environment.
2. People looking for an overview of techniques.
Time is money and both could be saved if information was made, more readily
available.
Motivation
The motivation for this research came from the period when the Authors main job
was managing Test Laboratories. There seemed to be a common need amongst Lab
Managers to have a System that would not only cover bookings, inventories, loans,
configurations and the like but also make the information available to users and
managers alike.
There were also issues about different versions of the same document floating
around in emails. Sometimes people got left out of the loop and hence had
wrong versions.
During this time various Systems were tried but were not highly successful because
the information they provided was too difficult to access. The Systems were not
aimed at the larger audiences. Another observation made was that when
specialists were brought in they only provided one type of solution ie there was little
choice available.
The Author visualised having the skills within his work area where people could
quickly build intuitive, flexible, open Systems that would allow the free flow of
information.
Business case
The business case is fairly simple. If suitable Systems were produced there would
savings in the following areas:
1. Email storage only one copy, the latest version, would be published with
emails just carrying the links to the location of the information.
2. Time to find documents. Searching is more efficient with dedicated search
tools and less time is wasted looking for information.
3. Version control a definitive version of a piece of information or document
would be available.
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Chapter 2 : Overview of available technologies and

assessment of their suitability
2.1 Introduction
This section attempts to stand back from the project and tasks in hand and tries to
give an overview of the techniques, methods and products that can help produce
database driven web pages and sites.
In the Authors view, there are roughly 3 categories of solutions:
Simple Web Server side coding methods. These involve writing and
running programs on a web server that, when called, go off and perform
tasks like connecting to databases, querying them and outputting the results
in HTML to the users browser. In the old days this was done by CGI scripts
but nowadays dedicated scripting languages such as PHP, ASP and CFML are
frequently used. A knowledge of one of the PHP, ASP or CFML languages is
required for this type of solution or some knowledge of how CGI works.
Total Development Environment methods. Three such Systems are

looked at:
a) The Microsoft contribution - Visual Studio.Net
b) The Macromedia (DreamWeaver) environment version - Cold Fusion.
c) An independent company solution like the CodeCharge Studio
product from YesSoftware. This third example, unlike the first two, is
technology independent, producing solutions to most platforms using
code and databases of the users choice. The product generates the
code.
These types of solutions tend to be for more time-complex situations and, in
the case of the first two examples, more proprietary. The third example is
slightly different in that it is not tied to a platform. In all three, there are
varying degrees of extra cost involved. The three examples given are by no
means the only ones available but probably reflect a reasonable cross
section of the market.
Enterprise Wide Systems. These are not covered in this discussion as

they are usually multi-million pound corporate wide solutions. They are
ordered at board level and make use of technologies such as Java, XML and
heavyweight distributed databases. They could involve a 3 level model
including an intermediate application server with corporate strategy
implemented. These solutions are considered beyond the scope of this
report. Since starting this project BT has adopted several such Systems
the Niku Enterprise System and the LiveLink document management
System.
There are of course grey areas and overlaps between these artificial segregations of
categories.
First we will look at simple Server Side Scripting Solutions.
2.2 Web Server Side Coding Methods
2.2.1 CGI Type Solutions
In the early days before dedicated web scripting languages such as ASP and PHP
were developed programmers and developers had to produce their own code,
native to the operating System hosting the web service. They used existing
languages supported on the web server. These specialised pieces of code were
usually placed in a directory called the CGI bin the Common Gateway Interface,
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binaries folder or directory. Although any language, compiled or interpreted is

acceptable, the common choices were:
I. Report writing language of PERL.
II. A scripting language such as csh C shell scripting language
III. A compiled language such as C or C++
The only requirements for this method are:
The program must work on the web server.
It must be capable of accessing the data or database, hosted locally

or remotely
It must also be capable of outputting the results of the queries or

searches in HTML so that the user can view them in his/her browser.
This method is still used for complex or specialised solutions. Sometimes,

historically the bulk of the coding has already been written from a previous
proprietary solution and can be re-used for a more open and efficient web based
solution.
An example of CGI and Perl, used in the Authors work area is the Autosave tool
that captures and displays various configuration information from equipment such
as Cisco Routers.
Figure 1 - Example of an Application that uses CGI and Perl, Autosave

Router Configurations
A second example of using CGI and Perl to produce Database Web Pages
One of the first examples of a complete Web based database System is WODA
(Web Oriented Database), which is claimed by the Designer, Prof Ziga Turk, to have
originated around 1995. The System is completely written in Perl. Turk also
comments if in 1994 concepts like active server pages and database Systems
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built right into the HTTPD servers were available, as easily as today, the
evolution of WODA would perhaps be different ref [6]. Turk claims that WODA
is still used internally by NASA, Siemens and Amazon.com.
Figure 2 - An example of WODA
An example of a Dynamic Database Web site produced exclusively using WODA

Summary (of CGI method)
A couple of disadvantages of using CGI programs are:
a) all the commands used to contact and connect to databases must be known
and included in the CGI code. With the dedicated languages such as PHP and
ASP, the details are built into the languages and less knowledge is required.
b) if five different people submit queries via CGI, five copies of the program
have to run to fulfil the requests. This can make a popular web site slow down
significantly.
An advantage of using CGI is that existing non Web based solutions can be ported
to the Web using the original code with minimal alterations required. This would
only be a short term solution however, that doesnt take advantage of latest
developments in the Web, Database arena.
2.2.2 Solutions using Apache, PHP and MySQL

This type of solution appeals to people on a tight budget or people familiar with the
UNIX/Solaris/Linux platforms. All three components Apache, PHP and MySQL - that
make up the solution are effectively free.
Apache is a freely available complete Web Server that is usually deployed on a
UNIX Operating System such as Solaris or Linux. Apache accounts for
approximately 65% of the worlds Web Servers [ref1]. As well as supplying complete
Web Hosting Services, additional free components called modules can be added.
These modules supply the following services [ref1]:
CGI script handling
Site activity logging
Dynamic HTML
Proxy services
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Direct Access to Perl
User authentication
Image maps
Encryption and security
User and activity tracking
Java servlets
Graham Butcher
Commercially produced modules or components can also be added.

Apache originally came from the NCSA (National Centre for Super computing
Applications) organisation. Its name came from the fact that, because the earlier
versions had so many software patches, the product subsequently became known
as Apache. Apache is available free of charge at www.apache.org or
ftp.apache.org
PHP (Hypertext pre-processor) is a freely available scripting language specially
designed for web applications and database access. It is available at www.php.net.
The advantages of PHP are:
Its fast. Because it is embedded in HTML code, the response time is short
Its inexpensive free in fact
Its easy to use similar constructs as other popular languages such as C

and C shell
Runs on many platforms Linux/UNIX, Windows and Mac OS
Technical support is widely available through discussion groups
Its secure the user does not see the PHP code
Its designed to support databases most supported
Its customisable the open source licence allows programmers to modify

PHP for their own specific needs or environments if necessary.
PHP works by embedding scripting code in normal HTML using extensions to the
HTML tag method. A piece of PHP code will start with the <?PHP tag and finish with
the ?> tag. As a result all HTML statements are sent to the browser as is but PHP
statements are pre-processed and outputted in HTML before sending to the browser.
Eg
<?PHP echo Hello World; ?>
Will be processed to
Hello World
which is HTML Hello World is displayed in the users browser.
The consequence of this is that the end user never sees the PHP code - making it
transparent and secure.
MySQL is a freely available full RDBMS (Relational Database Management System)
similar to Oracle. It is available at www.mysql.com. MySQL is developed, marketed,
and supported by a Swedish company MySQL AB. There are two types of licence:
I. Open Source Software available via the GNU General Public Licence
(GPL). Anyone who meets the GNU requirements can use the product
for free, even if they are making money from it. The disadvantage is
that developments have to be made public.
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II. Commercial Licence MySQL is available at a modest price for

developers who want to produce and sell new products that use MySQL
rather than release them under GPL.
MySQL comes with a complete Web based Management and Administration System.
Figure 3 - Web interface for MySQL management and administration
Putting the three products Apache, PHP and MySQL - together makes an
attractive, open, low budget solution for implementing web based database
Systems.
2.2.3 Simple Microsoft/ASP type solutions using IIS, PWS, MS Access or

SQL Server
The reason why this section is called Simple Microsoft solution is to distinguish
it from solutions provided in section 2.2.2 where a more advanced MS solution is
described.
The solutions that are described in this section use a proprietary Microsoft language
called ASP Active Server Pages. This language is very similar to PHP, described in
2.2.2, in that it was designed specifically for web applications and connecting to
databases. It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that ASP, sometimes
known as ASP 3.0, is the most common language used to produce web pages with
dynamic contents.
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ASP will run automatically on all Microsoft based web servers - IIS and PWS but
will not work on Apache or other web servers. This is because there is no MS install
program available. ASP is built into MS web servers. To get round this problem
however, a third party company called Chilisoft produced an open version of ASP,
called Chilisoft ASP. This product is fully compatible with non-Microsoft platforms
and servers.
Chilisoft ASP used to be freely available at www.chilisoft.com When that URL is
now accessed though, you are re-directed to Sun Java System, Active Server Pages
4.0 so it looks as though Sun have bought out the company and distributes it as
part of its web server products. Chilisoft ASP is basically an open version of
Microsofts language designed to run on all platforms. Chilisoft ASP is particularly
useful for porting legacy Systems from a MS/ASP environment into an open one.
Microsofts main Web Server product is called IIS Internet Information Service.
The product comes free with various versions of Windows usually known as
professional eg Windows XP, Professional. With Windows 98 and 2000 there is a
free optional installable product called PWS Personal Web Server. This is a light
weight Web Server, useful for testing out ASP code and Web pages on your PC.
Microsofts two database offerings are Access and SQL Server. The former is
more aimed at the single user customer with the latter aimed at the multi-user
heavy weight end of the market. Many web based database solutions however, run
quite happily using Access as their database.
A simple example of ASP (written in VB script Visual Basic Script) code would be:
<html>
<body>
<center>
<% Dim ftsize, ftcolor%>
<% For ftsize = 1 to 7 %>
>
Hello and Welcome! 
<% Next %>
</center>
</body>
</html>
NB This is actually a mixture of HTML and ASP. The ASP code, embedded in the
HTML and highlighted starts with <% and finishes with %>. In this way it works like
PHP and is not visible to the end user. The result of calling this short bit of code
would be to display the words Hello and Welcome! in 7 different font sizes.
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Figure 4 - An example of ASP 3.0
By using, for example, IIS, ASP and Access, a quick and simple web based
database System can be built. A knowledge of the ASP language will however be
required. Alternatively, if additional tools are used like Microsofts Front Page
their web page and site generator - then wizards and short cuts can also be used for
simple solutions without any knowledge of ASP.
Also, a dedicated code generation tool such as CodeCharge Studio (see section
2.3.3) can be used which removes the need to learn any languages.
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2.3 Total Development Environment Methods

The second category of solutions is Total Development Environments category. A
sample of three is given here Cold Fusion, Visual Studio.Net and CodeCharge
Studio.
2.3.1 Cold Fusion Server and Development Environment
The first example in this category is ColdFusion. It is generally considered that
Dreamweaver is the best Web Page Development Tool. The manufacturers,
Macromedia, also have a strong hold on Web graphics with their Flash and Fireworks
products. Their Integrated Development Environment (IDE) includes a product
called ColdFusion that integrates database and data sources into Web pages.
It is possible to download the complete ColdFusion package for a months free trial.
When the trial expires it is possible to keep the development environment for use
with a single IP address. This allows developers to effectively continue to develop
pages on their own computer and deploy them on other existing, licenced
ColdFusion servers.
The price of the development and server software is listed below - $1299 for the
Standard Edition (correct in July 2004). This is considered a little too expensive for
the Project. It is also felt that ColdFusions influence is now slightly on the wane
see ref [2] ColdFusion had become less popular. Its embedded tag has also been
embraced in different formats by other Web technologies
The following discussion obtained from ref [3], www.macromedia.com explains
how ColdFusion works and how you develop database driven dynamic web pages
using the Macromedia ColdFusion environment.
Figure 5 - MacroMedia's own description of ColdFusion plus the Price
What is ColdFusion MX?

ColdFusion MX is a powerful web application server that lets you create robust sites
and applications without a long learning curve. ColdFusion MX does not require
coding in traditional programming languages (for example, C/C++, Java, XML),
although it supports these traditional programming languages.
ColdFusion MX consists of the following core components:
ColdFusion server
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
ColdFusion Administrator
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The ColdFusion application server

The ColdFusion application server is itself a web application that typically resides on
the same computer as your web server software ie it can co-exist with IIS and
Apache. It is the program that parses (reads and interprets) and processes supplied
instructions. These instructions are passed to ColdFusion through ColdFusion pages,
which use a CFM or CFC file extension. A ColdFusion page looks like an HTML page
but contains special tags that instruct the ColdFusion server to perform specific
operations. In this way CFML is similar to PHP and ASP 3.0.
How ColdFusion processes pages
The ColdFusion server looks at the content of the page and searches for the
following ColdFusion instructions:
Tags that begin with cf.
Variables and functions that are always surrounded by hash signs (#).
If the ColdFusion server finds any HTML or plain text in the page, the ColdFusion
server returns it to the web server untouched.
The ColdFusion server processes all the ColdFusion instructions found, and returns
any remaining results to the web server. The web server then sends the entire
output to the browser.
The ColdFusion Markup Language
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language similar to HTML that
uses special tags and functions. With CFML you can enhance your standard HTML
files with database commands, conditional operators, and high-level formatting
functions, and rapidly produce easy-to-maintain web applications.
CFML looks similar to HTML: it includes start and end tags, and each tag is enclosed
in angle brackets. All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag
names are preceded with cf; for example:
<cfstarttagname></cfendtagname>
Building applications with CFML

You build ColdFusion applications as a series of pages that use CFML. Developers
can extend this language by creating their own custom tags or user-defined
functions (UDF), or by integrating COM, C++, and Java components (such as JSP tag
libraries).
Interacting with data sources
ColdFusion applications can interact with any database that supports a JDBC
technology-based driver. A JDBC technology-based driver uses an Application
Programming Language (API) to execute SQL statements to databases on most
platforms. However, ColdFusion is not limited to JDBC data sources. You can also
interact with existing Open Database connectivity (ODBC) data sources by using
ODBC Socket, a driver that interacts with an existing ODBC driver.
Development tools
While you can code your ColdFusion application with NotePad or any HTML editor,
Macromedia recommends that you build your applications using Macromedia
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Dreamweaver MX. Dreamweaver MX offers features and wizards that enhance

ColdFusion development.
The ColdFusion MX Administrator
You use the ColdFusion MX Administrator to configure and maintain the ColdFusion
Application Server the Web Server. It is a web-based application that you can
access using any web browser, from any computer with an Internet connection.
You can manage the following configuration options with the ColdFusion MX
Administrator:
ColdFusion data sources
Debugging output
Server settings
Application security
Creating a ColdFusion page
Creating a ColdFusion page involves using tags and functions. The best way to
understand this process is to create a ColdFusion page.
In the following procedure, you will create a simple ColdFusion page by using HTML
tags, one ColdFusion tag, and two ColdFusion functions. The following table briefly
explains the ColdFusion tags and functions:
Element
Description.
Now()
A function supported in CFML that you can use to retrieve information from your
System.
You will use the Now ( ) function in the following procedure to return the current
date that is retrieved from your System.
DateFormat() A function that instructs ColdFusion to format the date returned by the Now()
function.
cfoutput
A ColdFusion tag that you use to return dynamic data (data retrieved from a
database) to a web page.
You will use the cfoutput tag in the following procedure to display the current date
retrieved from your System.
Note: ColdFusion tags and functions are considered primary elements of CFML.
To create a ColdFusion page:

Open your editor and create a blank file. Enter the following code on the page:
<html>
<head>
<title>AColdFusionPage</title>
</head>
<body>
Helloworld,thisisaColdFusionpage.
 
<cfoutput>Today'sdateis#DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput>
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</body>
</html>
The following figure shows the cfpage.cfm in the browser:
Figure 6 - An Example of CFML
Understanding CFML elements

CFML consists of two primary language elements: tags and functions. Tags let you
perform operations such as accessing a database. Functions can return data and do
other operations like retrieving the System date. Almost everything you want to
accomplish with ColdFusion will involve using tags and functions.
You will use another important element known as a variable. Variables are an
important part of most programming languages and are equally important with
CFML. Variables let you store information in memory and enable you to pass data.
The following sections describe how to use these three elements.
Tags
You can think of tags as commands that you use to instruct the ColdFusion server to
perform operations. These operations might include selecting data from a database,
reading a file that resides on the server, or showing the results of processing.
Tag syntax
ColdFusion tags are similar to HTML tags. ColdFusion tags are enclosed in angle
brackets and often have a start and end tag. The start tag encloses the tag name in
brackets, like this:
<tagname>
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Most often the end tag encloses the tag name in brackets and includes a slash (/),
like this:
</tagname>
The information processed by ColdFusion is placed between the start and end tag,
like this:
<tagname>
info to be processed ...
</tagname>
ColdFusion tags, for the most part, share these common characteristics:
All start with cf.
A start and end tag.
Use of attributes (like html tags), and most attributes have values.
Some ColdFusion tags, such as cfset, omit the closing tag. This type of tag uses one
set of angle brackets and places all the required information between the left (<)
and right (>) angle brackets, like this:
<cfsetname="bob">
Tag attributes
Tag attributes instruct the ColdFusion server about the details of an operation. For
example, to update a database table, the server needs to know specifics about the
database, such as the database name and the table name. The code required to
write this type of statement might look like this:
<cfupdatedatasource="mydb"tablename="mytable">
where datasource and tablename are attributes of the cfupdate tag and "mydb" and
"mytable" are attribute values.
Functions
Typically, a function acts on data. It can generate a value or a set of values, usually
from some input. You can perform the following operations (actions) with functions:
Manipulate data and time values
Examine a value or variable
Display and format information
Manipulate string data
Retrieve System information and resources
Perform mathematical operations
Using functions on values
Usually, a function performs an operation on a value, and the value can include the
value of a variable. For example: to format the value of a variable containing a
value in dollars, the code to write this statement might look like this:
#DollarFormat(price)#
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The DollarFormat function returns a value as a string and formats that value with
two decimal places, thousand separator, and dollar sign. The hash signs (#) around
the function instruct ColdFusion to evaluate the content between the hash signs and
display the value.
Functions and parentheses
All functions have parentheses, regardless of whether the function acts on data.
Consider the following function:
#Now()#
If you put anything inside the parentheses of the Now() function, an error would
occur. The Now() function returns an unformatted date and time. However, you can
format the results of this function with other functions, such as the DateFormat() or
TimeFormat() functions.
Nesting functions
Functions can generate data as well as act on data. Consider the following example:
#DateFormat(Now(),"mm/dd/yyyy")#
In this example, the Now() function generates the date, and then the DateFormat
function formats the date.
Functions and hash signs
You use hash signs (#) with functions to display the results of a function on the
page. Hash signs tell the ColdFusion server to evaluate the content between the
hash signs and display the value, for example:
<cfoutput>
Helloworld, 
Today'sdateis#DateFormat(Now(),"mm/dd/yyyy")#
</cfoutput>
The following figure shows the output of this example:
Figure 7 - CFML page
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If you did not include the hash signs around the DateFormat(Now(),"mm/dd/yyyy")
function, ColdFusion would not evaluate the function and the previous example
would display your source code, as follows:
Figure 8 - CFML with error
Variables
Variables let you store data in memory on the server - they always have a name and
a value. You can assign a value to a variable, or you can instruct ColdFusion to
assign variable values based on data that it retrieves from a data source, such as a
database table.
Summary
ColdFusion was probably the first robust integrated development environment
introducing features such as server side scripting with CFML (ColdFusion Markup
Language) using embedded declarative tags. It is now losing popularity a little to
cheaper more versatile solutions. CFML requires a ColdFusion Web Server to host
the site, applications and CFML web pages. Yue and Ding ref [2] writing from
Design and Evolution of an Undergraduate Course on Web Application say The
initial inclusion of ColdFusion in 1998 and its exclusion in 2000 may serve of an
example
ColdFusion would suit the developer that works exclusively with Macromedia tools
and has a ColdFusion Web Server to publish on.
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2.3.2 Advanced MS solutions using Visual Studio.NET

The second example of Total Development Environment category of solutions is
Visual Studio.Net.
Visual Studio.Net is Microsofts current development environment for Web,
Windows and Mobile applications. It costs $1079.
Figure 9 - Microsoft's pricing for Visual Studio.Net
The Integrated development environment contains the following elements:
A common IDE for the supported languages:

o
Visual Basic.Net
Visual C#
Visual FoxPro
Visual C++.Net
Easy ASP.Net programming ie WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) and
Code Aware Editors
The .Net initiative started to take off around the middle of 2000. It came about
because of the increasingly important role of the Internet, more collaboration
between developers and the gradual shift from desktop computing to distributed
computing.
Its method of communicating between applications, environments and platforms is
XML (eXstensible Mark-up Language).
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As people have some knowledge of the older MS languages of Visual Basic and
Visual C++ this discussion will just focus on the new elements of the package
ASP.Net and C# languages.
ASP.Net is Microsofts next version of (ASP) Active Server Pages the earlier
version, ASP 3.0 is mentioned in section 2.2.3 of this report. The main difference
between ASP 3.0 and ASP.Net is that the latter is object oriented and compiled. It
can be produced within Visual Studio.Net IDE using any of the languages mentioned
earlier. The advantages of ASP.Net over ASP 3.0 are:
Unlike ASP 3.0, ASP.Net is compiled therefore applications will run faster. Just
In Time (JIT) binding is possible.
ASP.Net provides DataGrid and DataList controls tailored for efficient

database access.
State management is handled better. ASP.Net offers three types of states for
Web applications: application, session and user.
Improved caching. A complete caching API is implemented. One of the

benefits is improved performance when interacting with databases through
better caching.
Better updating. With 3.0 its necessary to shutdown the Web server to
update the ASP with ASP.Net its not.
Multiple audience targeting. The same page can deliver text only for a
mobile phones or rich-dynamic content for IE 6.0. This is a built-in function
that detects the browser being used.
Object oriented. Better re-use of code is achieved.
Upgrading from ASP 3.0 to ASP.Net is achieved in one of two ways:

1. Rewrite the code in ASP.Net
2. Change the file extension from .asp to .net
Visual C# is Microsofts latest language that combines the strengths of C++ with
its low level controls with the simplicity and RAD features of Visual Basic. It also has
the added benefit of being able to convert applications produced in C# into XML
web services available to a range of platforms and other environments.
To encourage people to move to the .Net method of development, Microsoft are
giving away, free, certain elements of Visual Studio. One of these is a product
called Web Matrix, an editor for producing and compiling ASP.Net pages. It is a
visual editor with elements such as DataGrid and DataList drag and droppable
onto Web pages. Also provided free is a run time version of their Database System,
SQL Server. More information is available at their ASP.Net community site
www.asp.net ref [7].
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Figure 10 - Web Matrix, design window
Figure 11 - SQL Server control panel
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Summary
Using .Net technology is an investment for the future as the older Microsoft ASP 3.0
is likely to be phased out and unsupported some time in the future. The visual
Studio.Net environment also has the advantage that it can develop for the Web, for
Windows and for Mobile devices such as PDAs. This means that applications
written for one platform can be ported across relatively easily to another. The
prohibitive cost of the product Visual Studio.Net and lack of free trial period
prevented an in-depth study in this project.
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2.3.3 Third Party, Software Development Tools (CodeCharge Studio from

Yes software)
The third example in this Total Development Environment category is
CodeCharge Studio.
Figure 12 - Details of CodeCharge Studio's pricing structure NB, The

Personal Edition does not cover all languages
This type of solution has created quite a buzz in the industry as companies like Yes
Software are now challenging the big names Microsoft and Macromedia in the
field of Rapid Application Development of dynamic database driven web pages.
At the start of the project this type of solution wasnt considered important but as
the project progressed, this particular tool became more and more important. A
simple internet search revealed CodeCharge Studio as being a method of
developing code for database web applications. The full blown product is available,
free of charge, for one month and consists of a 25 MB download. After 3 months of
trials (on 3 separate computers) the Author was so impressed that the product was
purchased at the full price of $180. Subsequently the price has risen to $499 see
above.
CodeCharges own sales information is quoted as saying CodeCharge Studio is a
visual application builder and code generator that provides a feature-rich
environment for rapid application development for the web. It is the most
productive way available today to create powerful, scalable, and secure web
applications quickly. Based on a sophisticated code generation engine, CodeCharge
Studio opens up new possibilities for web developers by automating the creation of
virtually all web application components and by generating robust, professional-
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level server code in any of the following programming languages: ASP.NET (C# and
VB), ASP 3.0, PHP 4.0, Java Servlets 2.2, JSP 1.1, ColdFusion 4.01, and PERL 5.0 ref
[4].
How CodeCharge works
CodeCharge Studio is functionally and visually similar to other RAD tools, such as
Microsoft Studio.Net and Macromedia ColdFusion with the ability to maximize
developer productivity while keeping the cost of development to a minimum. While
visual programming tools are traditionally used for developing desktop and client
applications, CodeCharge Studio is ideal for developing sophisticated web
applications.
Figure 13 - CodeCharge Studio IDE
Project development using CodeCharge

The following steps demonstrate how a basic application would be created using
CodeCharge:
1. Start CodeCharge Studio.
2. Create a new project.
3. Name the project and select Application Builder.
4. Specify project settings such as the programming language and path to
the web server.
5. Specify the database connection type and establish a database
connection.
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6. Configure site authentication by specifying the database table and

columns that contain user login and password information as well as
security groups and roles.
7. Select the database tables based upon which the web application will be
created.
8. Specify the type of web page to be created for each of the previously
selected database tables. Specify if you want to create Search, Grid, and
Record maintenance pages for each table.
9. Specify a theme to be applied to the site. The theme defines the basic
layout and appearance of different elements within a page.
10. The Application Builder will automatically create a project with sets of
pages that make up the web application. You can then publish the pages to
the server and test them.
11. If you wish, you can make further modifications to the created
application by using the integrated development environment (IDE).
CodeCharge Studio does not help you develop the underlying databases that drive
the applications. It does however, let you connect to existing databases during
development and to test your application with real database connections during
testing.
CodeCharge Studio Features
The following is a summary of the CodeCharge sales information available at
www.codecharge.com ref [4]. The main features are:
1. Application Builder
2. Integrated Development Environment
3. Form and Component Builder
4. Visual Query Builder
5. Security Management/Role-based Access Control
6. Support for multiple languages
7. Extensibility
8. Multiple Database Connections
9. Integration with other products
10. Extensive Database Support
11. Application Templates (Solutions for customisation)
12. Custom Code Actions
13. Code Generation Engine
The details of these features are included verbatim in Appendix C.
Benefits of using CodeCharge Studio
The following benefits are obtained by using CodeCharge Studio:
1. CodeCharge generates structured, object oriented code in the language of
your choice.
2. As the code is well structured it is easily maintainable and can be extended
manually if necessary. If this done within CodeCharges own editors the new
code is not over-written during subsequent use of the automatic code
generator.
3. The code produced separates the programming logic from the presentation
layer ie the files .asp, .php, .jsp, etc files are separate from their
corresponding HTML files. In large scale developments this allows separate
teams to work on programming and visual design.
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Summary
CodeCharge Studio offers an attractive and flexible way of rapidly producing
Dynamic Database Web pages. It would be the solution that the Author would
recommend that people, new to the arena, look at first.
2.4 Enterprise Wide Systems

As stated earlier, this type of solution was considered beyond the scope of the
project and is only included here for the sake of completion.
2.5 Other topics relevant to producing Database driven Web Pages

This section includes additional pieces of information, critical to the understanding
of web based database technologies.
2.5.1 Client versus Server side scripting and programs
Up until now all the programming languages and code have been designed to work
on the Web Server side of the Client/Server model used for discussing web pages.
One (or two) important languages that run instead in the clients browser are Java
script (and the MS version JScript). These are important because they, for example,
can verify data input to a form. This saves time as the browser doesnt need to
access the server to do this. Basic checks for data integrity of things like telephone
numbers and email addresses are easily achieved.
The only problem with this client side programming is that unlike HTML, there are
few open, independent standards and different browsers behave in different ways to
interpret the same code. A way to get round this is to make the scripting program
first check the browser type and version before re-directing to the required code for
that browser.
Also worth mention are Java Applets and Java Servlets. These are programs, written
in Java, a complex language based on C++, that run on the Client (PC, Mac or other)
or the Server respectively. Obviously, if they run on the client PC (or other) they
have the possibility of doing a lot of damage. This could be things like installing a
Trojan, a Virus or merely carrying out the command format C:\ on a PC machine.
This means that with normal browser settings the user is first asked if he wants to
accept the downloaded program before it can run.
2.5.2 Use of ODBC for connecting to databases
ODBC is the glue that allows different applications to access different databases
from different manufacturers in a consistent way. It existed long before web based
databases were thought of.
ODBC originated from Microsofts Windows Open Systems Architecture (WOSA),
which provides a series of application program interfaces (APIs) to simplify and
provide standards for various programming activities. The goal is to have all
applications communicating through the same set of APIs. ODBC is just one piece of
the WOSA picture. Other components include telephone services (TAPI), messaging
services (MAPI), and open data services (ODS). Today it is generally treated as an
open standard.
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Normally before accessing an ODBC database, you must install on your System the
appropriate ODBC driver for that database (if its not installed already).
A Data Source Name (DSN) is what ODBC uses to allow you to associate a database
with a driver. You use the ODBC Administrator (in Control Panel on PCs) to configure
and give the DSN a unique name and then associate it with both a database and a
driver.
When you open a connection to ODBC, you specify what DSN you want to work with.
ODBC takes care of all the little details involved in opening that database.
Before you can access ODBC databases, you must configure the ODBC data source
names, the ODBC drivers, and the configuration values used in ODBC.INI. You also
should understand the structure of an ODBC driver and the ODBC API as well as
some ODBC-related terminology.
In order for any application to access data in a database, it must establish a
connection to that database through its corresponding ODBC driver. To do this, the
application must request a connection from the ODBC Driver Administrator,
specifying the data source desired.
Although ODBC is the oldest method it is by no means the only way of connecting to
databases. Other methods are JDBC, ADO (Active Data Objects) and Jet (MS Access
database engine). A tool like CodeCharge Studio will allow you to choose the type
and sort out the necessary code for connecting to databases automatically.
2.5.3 Whats Oracles contributions to the discussion?
Oracle is the worlds largest database company. Along with Oracle v7 and possibly
v8, there used to be a free Web Server and Wizards that allowed you to develop
dynamic web pages. Although this appears to be supported with the latest version,
Oracles support seems to be withdrawing and they generally seem to be
recommending other proven methods such as PHP and ASP.Net. See Hull, ref [5].
2.5.4 Security
Web and Database security are massive subjects in their own right. The discussion
in this report is limited to a few mistakes that can be made when designing
Database Web pages and sites:
1. Access database (or other single file database) can be downloaded. This
actually happened where a holiday company made available all their
customers credit card and other details stored in a single access database.
The hacker types something like:
http://www.holiday-company.com/customers.mdb
and the browser asks if the file should be opened or saved. Even if the
hacker doesnt know the name of the database file, it can be found by a
trial and error program. The way to protect against this is to obviously,
locate all data files in an area that can be reached by the code but not
browsers ie do not use the root directory for any data.
2. Permissions on all files on the Web Server have to be correct. On some
web sites, typing an incorrect URL gives you a listing of all files held their.
There is then the opportunity to download files that were not meant to be
downloaded. Sometimes database usernames and passwords have been
known to be stored in text files accessed by the code.
3. All Web servers have a default file or default filenames that are activated
even though not specified. The most common is index.html or index.htm.
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The developer needs to be aware of all the Web Server settings when
designing the code to be used.
2.6 A comparison of different solutions
This is one of the hardest sections to write as there are so many possible
combinations of different products and technologies. When making choices the
starting point is usually what is available to you at the start. This may be anything
from a Web Server, knowledge of a certain language or use of a certain
development tool. In the case of this project, the Author started with virtually
nothing so using an external hosting company with many built in features appeared
to be an attractive choice. More information is given in details, assessments and
conclusions of the three solutions in this report particularly in figures 27, 31 and
33.
The following table however, does try to compare two elements and focuses on
comparing PHP with ASP.Net. It is from an article by Sean Hull, PHP and ASP.Net go
head to head, Ref [5]
PHP 4
PHP 5
ASP.NET
Software price
free
free
free
Platform price
free
free
$$
Speed
strong
strong
weak
Efficiency
strong
strong
weak
Security
strong
strong
strong
Platform
strong
strong
weak (IIS only)

win32
Source
available
yes
yes
no
Exceptions
no
yes
yes
OOP
weak
strong
strong
Figure 14 - PHP - ASP.Net comparison table from ref [5]
Hulls conclusion is that PHP 5 is best overall but with the caveat that its not so
good at Object Orientation (as .Net).
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The following is a summary of the Authors findings regarding some of the products
and technologies discussed so far:
PHP
4
PHP
5
ASP.Net
ASP
3.0
CGI
MySQL
Access/
SQL
Server
Apche
IIS
CFusn
Web
Server
CFML
CCharge
Studio
Software
price
free
free
free
free
free
free
$$
free
$$
$$$$
free
$$
Platform
price
free
free
$$
$$
free
free
$$
free
$$
$$$$
$$$$
$$
Speed
stron
g
stron
g
weak
stron
g
strong
strong
strong
strong
stron
g
strong
stron
g
strong
Efficiency
stron
g
stron
g
weak
stron
g
strong
strong
strong
strong
stron
g
strong
stron
g
strong
Security
stron
g
stron
g
strong
stron
g
strong
strong
strong
strong
stron
g
strong
stron
g
strong
Platform
stron
g
stron
g
weak
(IIS
only)
Weak
(IIS
only)
strong
strong
Weak
(IIS
only)
strong
weak
strong
stron
g
Weak
(PC only)
Source
available
yes
yes
no
no
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Exceptns
no
yes
yes
no
possible
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
OOP
weak
stron
g
strong
weak
possible
weak
strong
weak
stron
g
strong
stron
g
strong
Figure 15 - Author's comparison table
Of course some of these comments such as Apache Web Servers capability of

supporting Object Orientation are a bit meaningless. Some dedicated CGI
programmers would swear that you can make CGI do what you want!
Later in this report, there is a flow chart mapping a developers choices when
choosing the elements to make up a working dynamic web database System. See
figures 27, 31 and 33.
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Chapter 3 : An overview of the three working examples

produced during the project
The following is a short description of the three solutions produced during the
project. Later in the report, more details are given. In chronological order they are:
1. A complete Test Equipment Inventory and Calibration Record System (for
Concert Global Networks).
2. An enhanced Lab Equipment Asset Register (for XGH1, UKIP).
3. An enhanced Document Management System (for XGH1, the Authors
Cost Centre).
3.1 Inventory and Calibration System Concert
In this System, details of Concert Test Equipment, Network Trials and Calibration
Information were stored in a manner available to all 3 Companies involved Concert
and its parents BT and AT&T. The reason why the past tense is used here is that
Concert is no longer.
The technology used for this solution was:
A commercially hosted external web site
Apache, PHP and MySQL.
MS FrontPage for buttons and navigation pages
Access was controlled by session-based passwords and all usage of the System,
logged in the database itself.
The following screen shots are from the solution:
Figure 16 - Page for selecting views of tables
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Figure 17 - View of Assets Table
Figure 18 - Login, obtain password page
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3.2 Enhanced Lab Equipment, Asset Register UKIP

This section gives an overview of the second working example, produced to add
value to the Authors working area.
An existing Database Inventory System was made available to all in the UKIP test
teams by producing an open web based query tool. Previously this data was only
available to two or three people updating the data. The data is searchable by two
different methods simple or power.
The technology used was:
IIS, ASP and MS Access
Code developed by CodeCharge IDE
Figure 19 - Simple search page of UKIP Inventory
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Figure 20 - Power search of UKIP Inventory
Figure 19 Display of single Asset showing all fields
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3.3 Enhanced Document Management System XGH1

This section gives an overview of the third example produced to add value to the
Authors work area.
This solution provides a multi-database Document Retrieval System allowing search
and retrieval of any registered document within the Data and IP Integration Centre
directly into the users browser. The technology used was:
IIS, ASP and MS Access
Multiple databases
CodeCharge development IDE
IE5 browser as document viewer and editor
Figure 21 - Documentation System, database chooser
Figure 22 - Documentation System, search for "Peakflow DOS"

Figure 23 - Show versions of "Peakflow DOS upgrade ..."
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Figure 24 - Requested document retrieved to users web browser
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Chapter 4 : Details of the first example, Concert Test

Equipment & Calibration Details solution
In the following three sections each solution is dealt with in more detail. The first
one is the Concert Test Equipment and Calibration Details solution. The Concert
Company, however, did not last for more than a few years and as a result the
solution produced in this area didnt get past the working prototype stage. The
lessons learned were passed on to the second and third examples, discussed later.
4.1 Requirements
The requirements for this example were as follows:
The existing data, in the Access database, must be used.
The System should be used through the Web using a Web browser.
The data must be available to people from a variety of backgrounds and

locations ie within the 3 companies involved Concert, BT and ATT&T. The
offices covered 3 continents.
Database creator (owner) and administrator don't manage this database as

their primary job function. Therefore the creation and management of the
database should not take much time.
Database owner is not a programmer or a database specialist. It should be

possible to define and manage the database without programming, as much as
possible.
There isnt a high demand for changing and updating the data. It is
presently carried out by one person the Author.
Hopefully in the future, the System could be adopted by Concerts own

Apache based web sites.
Home-workers should be able to use the System via a narrowband modem

connection.
End users might enjoy the following:
The generated HTML or any other code (Java, JavaScript) should be portable
and run on as many browsers as possible. Minimal requirement are second
generation browsers with tables support.
Data types common to the Web should be supported, such as text areas, radio
buttons, URLs, email addresses...
Speed and scalability. Users on the Web are expected to wait a second or two
for a reply from a server. The System should respond within that time frame.
Security. The System will not be used to handle financial transactions but may
contain details of equipment and locations.
4.2 Background.
Concert was a joint venture company formed from its two parents BT and AT&T. It
lasted for 3-4 years before it was divided up and given back to the original founding
companies. One of the main businesses of Concert was to supply and manage
Global Bandwidth. The Authors role in the company was to test, point to point
superhighways carrying SDH and SONET traffic, sometimes supplied by outside
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Graham Butcher
companies such as Level 3, Quest or Global Crossing. To do this, test equipment

had to be moved round the world and put in place at the two ends of the circuits.
The tests of the circuits supplied by the third party companies were known as
trials and had to be planned well in advance. The test equipment used had to
calibrated regularly.
4.3 Problem analysis
The starting point of this solution was the existing NVT (Network Verification Testing)
Concert Database:
Figure 25 - Starting point, existing NVT database - MS access
Figure 26 - existing database, view of Assets
The main problems to be overcome in designing this information System were:
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1. A choice of technologies (language and interface or database connection)

had to be chosen
2. A suitable platform had to be found to host the service available to a
wide audience
3. The existing data had to be incorporated
4. Some new skills had to learned to implement the solution
The starting point for the solution was choosing the platform. It was decided that,
instead of setting up a working platform incorporating the required 3 components
web server, database and language a commercial hosting company would be
used. After looking at several the best choice seemed to be:
www.easily.co.uk
Their publicity stated the following inclusive features (see figure25) next page.
The cost was 15 per year for the service with additional charges for uploads and
downloads amounting to another 5.
The next stage was to decide on the database. As there was an existing Access
database holding current data it was decided to go with Access and incorporate
that into the solution. The final decision was to choose the language. Chilisoft
ASP was chosen because it was already included in the hosting package and ASP
appeared to integrate well with Access.
This is where the first discovery was made. Access databases consist of a single
*.mdb file. By placing this single file on a UNIX/Linux Apache server the database
became unusable. This is because the Microsoft file structure is incompatible with
UNIX file Systems apart from mere storage. At this point the solution had to be redesigned.
The solution, mark II, consisted of the same commercially hosted web server
(Apache) with MySQL and PHP used instead of Access and ASP. The contents of
the Access database had to be exported to text based CSV (comma separated
variable) files one for each table. This was done via Microsoft Excel as an
intermediate stage. These text based files were then used to load the data into the
MySQL database, supplied by the hosting company.
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Application Choices
Choices made for solution 1
Start Here
Have you a
Web Server
available?
Do you want to
choose an
external host?
Yes
No
No
You must
build
it yourself
IIS
NB Its easier if the

databse is co-hosted with
Web server
Choose
your
language
Choose
your
database
SQL
Server
Access
Choose
your
language
ASP
v3.0
Choose
your
database
Other
ODBC eg
Oracle
MySQL
Choose
your
language
Choose your
development
environment
Visual
Studio.Net
Any ODBC
or JDBC
database
Choose
your
language
PHP
ASP.Net
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusi
on
Apache
Choose
your
database
Try
easily.co.uk
NB Not all
languages are
included here
What type is
it?
Yes
Choose
your
language
CFML
Choose your
development
environment
CodeCharge
Studio
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusion
Finished Application
Figure 27 - Flowchart showing choices made for first solution
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Product
Included
100 MB Diskspace
FTP
Php 4
MySQL
FrontPage 2000 Extensions
Sun Chilisoft ASP
Own CGI-bin
Mod Perl
Graphical Website Statistics
Quick Use Templates
Extra Diskspace Available
HTML, Graphics & Javascript
Flash
Dreamweaver 3 Compatible
HotMetal Pro Compatible
Helpdesk Support
Linux & Apache Based
Free Software Downloads
Free Links to Development Sites
"Pay As You Go" Data Transfer
Internet Connection via 100 MB line
No Hidden Extra Costs
Figure 28 Features provided with Easily.co.uk Web hosting
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4.4 Functional analysis of web-access to DBs

By hosting the database on the same server as the web server, connections were
simplified. Additionally the PHP language is designed to connect to databases so
the commands to make the connections are simpler all source code used in the 3
solutions is available on request. The problem with using a remote and externally
managed database during development is that the debug, edit, upload, re-test,
cycle takes longer.
4.5 Practical advice
Having a dummy MySQL database available locally on a development PC would
have been useful. This would have allowed full control of the database and would
have made requests for the live System easier to formulate.
When importing data into MySQL a command Line Interface is used. These
commands are best stored as text script files. By doing this a record is kept, re-use
is possible and typos are easily detected and corrected.
A knowledge of Oracle CLI (Command Line Interface) is useful as MySQL CLI is
similar.
4.6 Heuristics
When solving problems, just typing the question into a modern Internet Search
Engine such as Google often brings up answers quicker than expected quite often
quicker than delving through the relevant text books.
4.7 High level development
The High Level Development consisted, in this case, of deciding to host the Service
on the Internet rather than the three local Intranets (BT, AT&T and Concert).
Although this does have security issues for a live System, it does simplify the
problem of not having to request proxy servers and simultaneous access to three
Intranets. These days it is not that uncommon to use the public Internet for
commercially sensitive information, albeit with the use of encryption, tunnelling and
other technologies.
4.8 Scalability
Scalability should not be a problem with this solution as disk space is expandable on
request. PHP and MySQL are designed to take multiple requests. High request
rates are handled a lot better on this platform than CGI for example.
4.9 Ease of maintenance
With this solution the maintenance and administration of Apache, PHP and MySQL
are handled externally. Although this appears to be a good thing, the downside is
that there is obviously also a forfeiting of control. Internally the MySQL account still
has to be managed so that data is meaningful. This can be time consuming.
4.10 Technologies v non-functional requirements
This type of technical solution gives rather a bland type of presentation of the data.
These days peoples expectations are of all the latest graphic displays and complex
soft logic applied to search techniques such as Google. This solution does not
meet these expectations.
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4.11 Design and Development of Solution

The strategy used to produce the solution was:
1. Port the data from Access to MySQL
2. Re-use existing code modified from a variety of sources - for
displaying the data.
3. Produce Front-end, user friendly pages to display the PHP code
written Microsoft Front Page was used.
4. Protect the data with password protected pages
5. Look for ways of managing the database user management, disk
space, table repairs etc
These stages were all completed before the Company (Concert) was disbanded and
development stopped. A couple of extra stages would have produced a more
complete solution:
1. More complicated Views of the data could have been written taking
into account the links in the original Tables.
2. An online update System could have been produced that used forms
and matrices for updating the MySQL data. The method used in the
prototype was to update the data by using the built-in MySQL
Management facility.
3. A more compact and cosmetically attractive way of displaying the
data could be found. This was achieved in the second and third
working examples.
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Chapter 5 : Details of second example, the UKIP Asset

Register
This section documents in detail the second working example produced - the
enhanced Database Inventory System as used by different groups making up the
UKIP Test Labs. This existing database System holds details of serial number, owner
status location, purchase request number etc of all UKIP Assets full list of fields
supplied in figure 19.
5.1 Requirements
The existing data, in the Access database, must be used.
The new System should be used through the Web using a Web browser no
specialised software required.
The new System should be read only the database is administered by the
infrastructure team
The new System must not corrupt the data
The new System must not force the infrastructure team to work in a different
way.
End users might enjoy the following:
The generated HTML or any other code (ASP, Java, JavaScript) should be
portable and run on as many browsers as possible. Minimal requirement are
second generation browsers with tables support.
The search syntax must be simple for novices but advanced users must be
able to define complex search expressions. If the results are sortable by all
columns, that would be an advantage
Data types common to the Web should be supported, such as text areas, radio
buttons, URLs, ordering by columns with a single click etc.
Home-workers should be able to use the System via a narrowband modem

connection. Currently the database size is 10MB and having to download it in
its entirety is not good way to work. Database queries through a thin client
web browser would be much more efficient.
Speed and scalability. Users on the Web are expected to wait a second or two
for a reply from a server. The System should respond within that time frame.
Security. The System will not be used to handle financial transactions. It will
hold information about equipment and locations and should be shown outside
BT.
5.2 Background.
The UKIP Test area of the Authors Centre consists of several teams sharing a range
of equipment used for simulating, testing and integrating new products and
features. These will be used in different areas of the live BT IP Networks. The
current Access database is held on a shared drive and is accessible by using the
interface shown in figure 26 below.
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The starting point for this solution was looking at the existing Access database. This
database holds details of all Assets for the UKIP area of the Test Centre. At that
point the database was only used by the infrastructure team. The interface to the
database looked like:
Figure 29 Original user interface to UKIP Inventory database
This interface did not give away many clues about the internals of the database.
The designer of the database was consulted to find out more details.
The next task was to analyse in detail, the structure of the database by looking at
the tables and their relations. MS Access itself provides a useful tool for doing this
under Tools/relationships from the pull-down menus. The analysis showed:
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Figure 30 - Analysis of tables and relationships in UKIP Inventory

database
This analysis revealed there were 7 tables in total and surprisingly, that there were
no links or relationships in place between the tables. All the Asset data was in one
table. This made the design of the solution considerably easier as the task could
be reduced to displaying one table the 1 Network Devices table.
The main remaining problems to be overcome were:
1. A choice of technologies/languages and interfaces/connections had to be
chosen
2. A suitable platform had to be found to host the service available to all in
UKIP area of the Test Centre.
3. The existing data had to be incorporated.
4. Very importantly the new System should not interfere with the mission
critical, existing System managed by the Infrastructure Team. It should not
even be seen to slow down or change the ways of working of the existing
methods.
5. The new presentation of the data the web pages should be Read Only.
New data should be added and modified using the existing Access interface
which has full auditing built-in.
6. Some new skills had to learned to implement the solution
At this point in time the CodeCharge Studio Development Environment and
automatic code generation System had been discovered and it was decided to put
it to use using an IIS Webserver with ASP 3.0 to interface to the existing Access
database.
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Application Choices
Choices made for solutions 2 & 3
Start Here
Have you a
Web Server
available?
Do you want to
choose an
external host?
Yes
No
No
You must
build
it yourself
IIS

Web server
Choose
your
language
Choose
your
database
SQL
Server
Access
Choose
your
language
ASP
v3.0
Choose
your
database
Other
ODBC eg
Oracle
MySQL
Choose
your
language
Choose your
development
environment
Visual
Studio.Net
Any ODBC
or JDBC
database
Choose
your
language
PHP
ASP.Net
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusi
on
Apache
Choose
your
database
Try
easily.co.uk
NB Not all
languages are
included here
What type is
it?
Yes
Choose
your
language
CFML
Choose your
development
environment
CodeCharge
Studio
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusion
Figure 31 - Flowchart showing decisions made for solution 2
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Graham Butcher
5.4 Functional analysis of web-access to DBs

Another decision that was made was that a System that used the live (single)
database file directly was too risky. A batch job was to be setup that would copy the
live database file to the chosen web server 4 times a day. This enabled the
database manager to effectively see no difference to the way he had worked
previously but ensured that the web pages were never more than a couple of hours
out of date.
5.5 Practical advice
Diagram to show how choices are made are shown in figure 31 above.
5.6 Heuristics
When dealing with a new tool such as CodeCharge Studio it is well worth investing
some time in finding how to use it properly. Fortunately the product came with
several tutorial examples that were studied to take full advantage of the products
features. These tutorials are available free of charge from the web site
www.codecharge.com ref [4].
5.7 High level development
The high level development decisions made in this example were things such as:
Realising the importance of the existing System and building round that
System with a low risk enhancement.
Choosing the interface. In contrast to the original interface, see figure 29,
the web based interface is extremely simple. For the simple search a
single text box is used to search for any record containing any supplied
string see figure 19. For example if just the letter e was entered the
result would be a list of all records. If the word Peakflow is entered, 4
records are displayed all containing Peakflow in at least one field. The
power search allows more specific information. In figure 20 all records that
satisfy building=b48, room=9, owner=james, status=in use are displayed.
Choosing a development environment and automatic code generation tool

for the first time.
5.8 Scalability
With a maximum of 40 or 50 people working in the UKIP area, the chances of
numerous simultaneous queries occurring are low so using Access as a database
should not be a problem. That the current size of the database file is 10 MB, having
grown from 6 MB two years ago, means that there shouldnt be a problem with disk
space on the server. The System implemented should therefore be adequate for
hosting present and future needs.
5.9 Ease of maintenance
All database management and data content is handled by the infrastructure team.
The IIS Webserver is also managed by another team. The only check that has to be
made is that the files are being copied across to the web server as expected. If this
fails, the database web pages will still work but the data wont be completely up to
date. To summarise, the designed System needs very little maintenance.
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The design and development of the solution followed the following stages:
1. Decide on the 3 key elements database, platform and language. In this
case the existing Access database was preserved, hosted on an IIS server
with ASP 3.0 used as the scripting language. The reason for using ASP 3.0
was that the IIS web server was relatively old and there was a fear that
ASP.Net might not be supported.
2. Next, the development environment was set up on a single PC. The PC was
running XP Professional so had a built in IIS web server that had to be
enabled. Windows XP does not enable IIS by default. CodeCharge Studio
was installed as the development environment.
3. A copy of the live database was used in the development environment.
Next the stages of Project Development described in 2.3.3, were applied
and the Application was built. The first version used just a simple search.
This effectively created an SQL select command of the form:
Select {field1},{field2},{field3} FROM {Table name} WHERE {field1}
LIKE '%{s_keyword}%' OR {field2} LIKE '%{s_keyword}%' OR {field3} LIKE
'%{s_keyword}%' .
The actual command was:
SELECT [Asset reg no], Description, [Part No], itemname, [Serial No],
Building, Room, Rack, Owner, Comments, Status
FROM [1 Network Devices]
WHERE Description LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR itemname LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Building LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Room LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Rack LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Owner LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Status LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR Comments LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR [Asset reg no] LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR [Serial No] LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
OR [Part No] LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
The application was then tested on a few key users and feedback obtained.
This SQL command was generated automatically by CodeCharge Studio. In
the early releases of the software however, the square brackets around field
names like Serial No had to be added manually!
4. A second type of search, the power search was then added using SQL of
the form:
Select * FROM {Table name} WHERE {field1} LIKE '%{field1_entry_form}
%' AND {field2} LIKE '%{field2_entry_form}%' AND {field3} LIKE '%
{field3_entry_form}%' .
The actual command was
SELECT *
FROM [1 Network Devices]
WHERE [Asset reg no] LIKE '%{s_Asset_reg_no}%'
AND Description LIKE '%{s_Description}%'
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AND
AND
AND
AND
AND
AND
AND
AND
AND
Graham Butcher
[Part No] LIKE '%{s_Part_No}%'

itemname LIKE '%{s_itemname}%'
[Serial No] LIKE '%{s_Serial_No}%'
Building LIKE '%{s_Building}%'
Room LIKE '%{s_Room}%'
Rack LIKE '%{s_Rack}%'
Owner LIKE '%{s_Owner}%'
Comments LIKE '%{s_Comments}%'
Status LIKE '%{s_Status}%'
This was also tested on a few key users before being released along with the links
between the two pages holding the searches.
5. The final stage was to make the URL to find the web pages more friendly.
This was done by adding a DNS entry on the BT intranet so that URL used
was:
http://xgh1.nat.bt.com/asset register
The development time for this solution was significantly shorter than the time taken
for the first, Concert example. The reasons are:
More experience.
Better Methodology.
Use of Development and Automatic Code Generating Tools.
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Chapter 6 : Details of third example, Centres Documentation

Management System
The third and final example was the enhancements made to the Centre Document
Management System. The lessons learnt from first two example were applied and a
working System was produced relatively quickly. The technology used for the
second solution seemed to work well so was also adopted for the third. This means
that the third has many similarities and only obvious differences are highlighted. To
understand this section completely the reader should read the previous section
details of second solution.
6.1 Requirements
The System should allow web based access to all the Centres registered
documents1.
The System should remove the need for the existing dedicated software to
view and download documents.
The System should be read only, in that it should not be used for registering
and storing documents
The System should work with specified browsers. As the browser has the
dual purpose of locating the documents and also displaying them, the
specified browser will be MS IE5 or later. This is because MS Office is used
for most documentation within the Centre. If a different type of browser is
used it will be able to locate documents but not display them unless they
are TEXT, JPEG, HTML or other web supported formats.
As some documents can have many Authors writing different versions

there should be two types of searches available. One is a document oriented
search and the second an Author oriented search.
Search results should be orderable by clicking on column headings.
6.2 Background
XGH1, the Authors work Centre has had its own documentation System for a
number of years. The System which is MS Access based was developed by Paul
Wigens, a work colleague. There have been a number of releases of this dedicated
software. The System is used for storing and retrieving documents and managing
their change control. Within XGH1 there are a number of work areas, each has its
own database of stored documents, the documents themselves being stored on
various different file servers. Most people in XGH1 only have access to two or three
areas, their own work area and the Centres common area. The common area holds
general information like templates used by the Centre.
This System is also seen as mission critical as, if for example, documents (or
details about documents) were lost, it could have a catastrophic economic affect on
the Centres finances. For this reason the Author again developed a safe System
that would not risk the integrity of the existing data and files. Copies are made, 4
times daily, of all database files to the web server, with the live FileStore files left
untouched. The new System is Read Only so does not risk any database corruption.
1
Not everyone has access to all documents in all areas. The new System should
allow the same people the same access that they would have had through the
existing System.
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Again with this solution the deployment method had to be chosen. Because the
second solution had worked so well with choices made it was decided to make the
same choices for this one.
The analysis of the database structure behind FileStore showed that the product
consisted of two layers of databases. The first database held information about the
areas of work covered and pointed to the other databases that actually held the
information about the documents, Authors and locations where the documents were
stored. The databases are known as front end and back end.
An analysis of a single back_end database showed that there were 6 tables with
the following relations.
Figure 32 - Analysis of FileStore "back end" database
The problem therefore resolved to producing two types of search on two different
web pages the Document oriented search and the Author oriented search.
The next page documents, with the help of a flowchart, the platform choices made.
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Application Choices
Choices made for solutions 2 & 3
Start Here
Have you a
Web Server
available?
Do you want to
choose an
external host?
Yes
No
No
You must
build
it yourself
IIS

Web server
Choose
your
language
Choose
your
database
SQL
Server
Access
Choose
your
language
ASP
v3.0
Choose
your
database
Other
ODBC eg
Oracle
MySQL
Choose
your
language
Choose your
development
environment
Visual
Studio.Net
Any ODBC
or JDBC
database
Choose
your
language
PHP
ASP.Net
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusi
on
Apache
Choose
your
database
Try
easily.co.uk
NB Not all
languages are
included here
What type is
it?
Yes
Choose
your
language
CFML
Choose your
development
environment
CodeCharge
Studio
Choose your
development
environment
ColdFusion
Figure 33 - Flowchart to show decisions made for solution 3
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Graham Butcher

1. Decide on the 3 key elements database, platform and language. In this
case the existing Access database was preserved, hosted on an IIS server
with ASP 3.0 used as the scripting language. The reason for using ASP 3.0
was that the IIS web server was a relatively old and there was a fear that
ASP.Net might not be supported.
2. Next, the development environment was set up on a single PC. The PC was
running XP Professional so had a built in IIS web server that had to be
enabled. Windows XP does not enable IIS by default. CodeCharge
Studio was already installed as the development environment.
3. A copy of the live database was used in the development environment.
Next the stages of Project Development described in 2.3.3, were applied
and the Application was built. In this case there was more of a challenge in
building the query to cover three tables. The CodeCharge Query builder
was used for the document search page:
Figure 34 - CodeCharge Query Builder, covering 3 tables
The resulting SQL query was:

SELECT TblDocuments.*, Type, TblDocTypes.DocCatID
AS TblDocTypes_DocCatID, TblDocCat.DocCatID AS TblDocCat_DocCatID,
DocCat, FileRef AS FileRef
FROM TblDocuments INNER JOIN
(TblDocTypes LEFT JOIN TblDocCat ON
TblDocTypes.DocCatID = TblDocCat.DocCatID) ON
TblDocuments.DocTypeID = TblDocTypes.DocTypeID
WHERE Title LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
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OR
OR
OR
OR
Graham Butcher
FileRef LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'

Keywords LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
Type LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
DocCat LIKE '%{s_keyword}%'
This would have been extremely difficult to formulate manually.

4. Next a separate page was produced for making Author searches.
5. Then the version page was created. All versions of a selected document
were found and displayed.
6. The next challenge was to return the location of any stored file directly into
the web browser. This stretched the capabilities of CodeCharge Studio but
was eventually achieved. This means that when the user clicks on the
selected document version, the document is retrieved directly into the
browser. Luckily IE 5 supports most document types so there was no need
to call up any other programs like Word, Excel or Notepad to display the
requested document. The only Microsoft document that couldnt be
displayed appears to be MS Project documents.
7. The final page to be produced was one that displayed the contents of the
front end database. This was used to allow users to pick the database
(or work area) they wanted.
8. The last stage was to produce a friendly URL to the application, the one
used is:
xgh1.nat.bt.com/filestore
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Chapter 7 : Evaluation of Solutions

To keep things simple, the three separate solutions are looked at separately.
7.1 Evaluation of solution 1
The main lesson learnt from this exercise was that Microsoft files, Access files
specifically, are not useable on a UNIX platform.
In addition to this the main difficulties encountered were:
1. Learning to write PHP to high enough to standard to allow enough
customisation and features to be implemented.
2. Uploading code and pages from behind BT Firewalls. This was possible when
the project started but increasing security standards prevented it latterly.
3. Exporting from Access and importing into MySQL is not a straightforward
process. All loading scripts should be kept for future use and for
modifications of any typos.
The good point that came out of this solution was:
1. The use of a server that all components already loaded saved a lot of time.
Installing and configuring Apache, MySQL, PHP and Chilisoft ASP would have
been time consuming.
Summary
This solution never got past the working prototype stage mainly because the users
it was designed to support disappeared along with the company. Of the three
solutions it was the only one built without development tools. This probably added
to the development time as all the coding had to be done by hand.
The use of a commercially managed server has good and bad points. The good are
that it will most likely be in a stable working state with all standard configurations
correct and in place. The bad side is that obviously, a certain amount of control is
forfeited and certain restrictions are in place.
The main lesson learnt from designing and implementing this solution was how
useful the development environment and automatic code generator was.
The solution produced, not only had a simple and pleasing interface but performed
efficiently even over 56k links. This was all achieved by using supplied templates
and style sheets combined with a query generator.
Using a MS proprietary data connection, ADO Active Data Objects, the webdatabase link was optimised.
The difficulties encountered were:
1. Having to learn how to use a powerful but complicated tool CodeCharge
Studio
2. CodeCharge Studio, in its early days, having a few bugs and having to
manually tweak the generated code to make it work. This helped to
understand ASP coding however.
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The good points that came out of this solution were:

1. An automatic code generator CodeCharge Studio in this case is good
news for at least four reasons :
a. A Knowledge of ASP (or other languages is not necessary)
b. The code generated is well structured and easily maintainable. For
example, all local variables such as paths and web locations are held
in a single file (common.asp in this case). If the application is ported
or moved to a different location it is easy to modify this single file.
c. Language sensitive editors made editing the code easier. Reserved
words are highlighted in different colours along with comments etc.
d. Cascading Style sheets are built in so the resulting application has a
consistent look and feel.
Summary
The resulting product produced by the tool CodeCharge Studio was significantly
quicker in the making and had a more professional look and feel and interface to
it. After having used the product it would be difficult to go back to producing by
hand coding and building from first principles. This finding was put into practice
with the third example as almost the same choices were made as far as database,
language, server and development tool were concerned. As a result the third
example was produced even quicker.
Although solution 3 applies to a completely different area than 2, technically it is
quite similar. A lot of the comments applied to 2 also apply to 3.
One of the main achievements of this solution was to not only locate the document
as a URL, but return the URL back to the browser so that the required document
could be displayed (in the browser).
One of the biggest challenges was to link several tables into a query that would
display the required data. The CodeCharge Studio query builder certainly helped
with this task.
The solution works particularly well when used over a 56k dial up link. The
previous, Access program based solution forces you to down load the whole
FileStore (back end) database before it can supply any information. This can take
over an hour to download over 56k, telephone link. The new web based version
retrieves information in a matter of seconds and documents, depending on size, in a
matter of moments.
Another advantage of the System is that documents can now be described by
their URL. The URL can be sent or distributed rather than the document itself. For
example if a large document is to be distributed to a group of people, it can first be
stored in FileStore and then the URL can be cut and pasted into an email to the
distribution list. This has two advantages:
The recipients dont get their email Inboxes clogged up with large
attachments
If the version of the document changes or the document is updated, the URL
is still valid and the latest version is found.
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Surprisingly this facility wasnt picked up within the Centre. FileStore seemed to
keep its perceived function as a repository for documents rather than a
collaboration tool or an email un-clogger.
The final advantage is that the web based front end allows users to switch
between databases very easily. This is achieved by using the database chooser
page. The old Access based System forced a download of a complete database to
the users PCs before displaying any information.
There are of course problems with retrieving documents directly in to ones browser
as this technique is totally dependent on the state of the network. Sometimes the
web browser would time out before the document arrived because the local LAN
was overloaded. Using the refresh button seems to help because the first half of
the file transfer gets cached and refresh usually completes the transfer. Even
cutting and pasting the URL into a new browser window has been known to work.
As mentioned earlier MS Project files did not appear to be viewable in MS browsers
even when the application MS Project - was loaded on the recipients PC. The
contents of Zip files were viewable but required the application to be installed.
During the course of the development of this third solution the Author was asked to
design a web based uploading System. The reasons for not doing this were fairly
simple:
It would take too long and extend the project beyond its recommended timespan and effort.
It had the risk of not working properly, corrupting the databases and losing,
mission critical information.
The FileStore System was due to phased out in a matter of years anyway
because of the universal adoption of the bought in solution called LiveLink.
LiveLink is a commercial product rolled out to the whole of BT with a few
additional features. Documents can be uploaded and downloaded through
its web interface, permissions can be controlled more tightly, communities
and group ownerships can be created and it covers the whole of the
Company. More information at
http://www.opentext.com/products/livelink/enterprise-server/
Difficulties and Good Points:

These are much the same as for Solution 2 but without the bad points! The skills in
using CodeCharge Studio had already been developed and the CodeCharge product
is now stable, mature and robust.
Summary
The full potential of the enhancement to FileStore was probably not achieved. This
could be due to a couple of reasons:
The Author did not publicise the benefits well enough
Users werent ready for a new way of working and didnt have the skills to
use the new interface. An example of a comment received was you cant
browse certain areas or categories of documents in a hierarchical way that
you could with the old software. This is not in fact true as the orderable
columns allow you to separate categories and types. It needs practice,
though.
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One place the new software is used is in the test labs where testers are away from
their desktop PCs and require documents quickly. Being able to retrieve these
without the usual dedicated program is a definite advantage.
There was initially some concern that the whole of BT would be able to see all
documents in FileStore but the fileservers that hold the documents prevent this. All
that people can retrieve is the location, version and a few other details.
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Chapter 8 : Recommendations
General recommendations are given before specific ones for each solution.
8.1 General Recommendations
1. Consider the Security of the solution first. This can affect the location of
files and permissions and is harder to modify later in the development.
See the section on security 2.5.4 Security.
2. Consider the risks involved with the data. Who should see it, who
shouldnt? When building a new System from scratch, what is the worst
case scenario that can happen? The same applies to enhancing an existing
System but probably more so. Design accordingly.
8.2 Recommendations from Solution 1
The following recommendations are:
1. Choose a web server or ISP where applications such as PHP and MySQL are
already installed.
2. Search the Web for existing code that can be adapted for your needs instead
of writing everything from scratch. Get involved with communities that
discuss and help each other overcome problems.
3. Dont expect Microsoft Database files (eg *.mdb) to be readable (or
openable) on a UNIX, Apache Server.
4. Use a development environment and software tools as much as possible as
in solutions 2 and 3.
Future Improvements and Enhancements
If this solution were to be continued the following improvements are recommended:
1. Writing a web page to enter data. As mentioned earlier, the current
System uses the built-in Administration tool to add data. A web page (or
pages) dedicated to updating the data would be a more efficient way of
doing things. There are two ways, or levels of difficulty, of doing this:
a. The first is fairly simple and straightforward one table is updated at
a time using a simple and separate web form for each table.
b. The second type of web page would be one that takes account of
links between tables. For example if the Assets table were being
updated a pull-down list of locations, extracted from the locations
table could be displayed. If a suitable location didnt exist it could be
added at that point without going to a form specific for adding
locations.
2. A second enhancement is something that would have to be done before
b) above. That is, establish links between the tables by writing the
necessary SQL. This would allow deployment of the database as it was
originally designed in its Access format ie with linked tables. The links
were lost when the data was ported from Access to MySQL.
3. The third improvement or enhancement recommended would be to
present the data in a more attractive and compact way. See Figure 17 View of Assets Table for the current method of presentation.
The recommendation and lesson learnt from this solution is use development
tools as much as possible. This has been mentioned several times in the report.
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Future Improvements and Enhancements

There are several recommendations for improving this second solution, should the
project continue:
1. The first and most obvious one is again, writing the web pages to update the
data. This is made a little more complicated with this particular database, as
at present, all actions and changes are audited and all changes logged. The
security of who was allowed to update and who wasnt would have to be
controlled by a password System. This is not too difficult to do with
CodeCharges built in Security Management/Role-based Access Control.
Additional hand crafted code would have to be written to be executed after
the update, add or delete buttons were pressed. The Asset table, in
this case would be relatively simple to update as it is a single table without
any links to complicate things. If this enhancement were implemented,
using a web page to update data however, would be significantly quicker
than the present method which involves downloading the whole Asset
Register database (10MB) to the updaters PC before any changes can be
made.
2. The second recommendation is that instead of having two copies of the
database a live one on the File-server, and a copy on the Web-server,
(synchronised every 2 hours) - a single database would be used. This of
course is a pre-requisite for recommendation 1 above. There would be two
ways of doing this:
a. Move the original database to the Web-server
b. Make a network connection from the Web-server to the live database
file on the File-server.
Solution a) would be the easier and more reliable way, as the web-database
connection would not have to rely on networks.

This particular solution was built quite quickly in a matter of evenings using the
lessons and experience gained from the first two solutions. It is not recommended
that the solution be extended and enhanced within the BT environment as a
corporate solution, LiveLink, has been bought in and is now used extensively. The
work produced during the project ie the enhancement to FileStore is still used
however, as users are presently transferring important documents to the new
System and have to look in different databases to locate them.
Extending/Enhancing the solution
If the solution were to be extended and upload pages were to be included, the
following advice from DataObjx/CCS Developer Magazine ref [9] could be used.
There are two (2) ways for using the non-COM based file upload component that
ships with CodeCharge Studio.
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One methods allows you to perform a script based upload and the other method
allows you to perform an ADO.Stream based file upload.
In both cases it appears that the component requires your server to have a
temporary directory into which the file is initially loaded and a 'permanent'
directory into which the file is subsequently moved if it passes validation.
However, there are times when the application will require that the Upload
component must upload the file directly into a field in a database table. The
reasons can range from the need for additional security or simply because the ISP
that hosts your site is unwilling to allow sufficient permissions to the necessary
directories.
Furthermore, if you do have sufficient permissions on these directories, you may be
concerned that the directories could be discovered and in one way or another
compromised.
As a result of this concern, you have probably adjusted your component to disallow
the uploading of certain types of files, especially .exe, .com, .bat files and so forth.
And you would be correct to have done so.
Still, there will be times when a System requires a higher level of security or the
ability to upload the executable type files. And thus make it harder for a hacker to
compromise your web sites security measures.
Uploading the file directly to the database and downloading the file directly from the
database may by your only choice.
Since CodeCharge Studio comes with sufficient information about their upload
component, our application is going to use a different one.
The component we're going to use is a free Upload component called
PureASPUpload. This component is apparently capable of uploading files up to 2 GIG
in size.
Normally however, this limitation is no limitation at all.
This component can be downloaded from
http://www.ormacdigital.com/pureaspup load/help/default, htm
They also sell another product called HUGE-ASP Upload that allows you to upload files
larger then 2 GIG.
Note: Downloading documents, images and other binary files from your database
can cause a strain on both the database and your bandwidth. Unfortunately, reality
often dictates things and we have no choice but to perform uploads directly to a
table.
Since this component allows files to be uploaded directly to a database field and is
free, it's a likely choice to use until the CodeCharge Studio component provides
similar functionality.
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Chapter 9 : Conclusions
This section covers the conclusions from the 3 examples and also a few overall
conclusions.
9.1 Conclusions from Solution 1
This type of solution using Apache, PHP and MySQL must be the cheapest. It also
gives considerable scope for expansion and Scalability. The main thing that went
against it was the overhead of having to learn PHP. PHP is not a difficult language
but as, like most languages, it has a few quirks that need getting used to.
After having developed the second and third solutions using the CodeCharge Studio
development tool, this solution was re-visited with a view of improving the code and
adding updating pages. It was found that a live development environment was not
easy to setup with the remote server managed by a third party. As a result the
CodeCharge Studio tool could not connect directly to the deployed database and
test during development. There was no local copy of MySQL to work with so
development by this method was abandoned.
Several unexpected findings came out of this solution:
One reaction of to the solution was what are the printing capabilities of the
solution? This demonstrated that people are not always ready for new
ways of working.
People dont always want their data publicised. This might be for several
reasons it might not be as up-to-date as they would like, it may result in
more empowerment to outside groups or they simply dont like changes to
the status quo.
The main surprise from this solution was, that after some initial teething problems
with the Development Tool, how easy it was to produce a simple working System
that met the design requirements.
The main conclusions drawn from producing solution number three were:
It would have been nice to have also produced pages for uploading
documents instead of just the Read Only solution produced. The Author
believes however, that the correct decision was made in not doing this, as
the risks were too high.
The solution is still in use but will have a limited life time as FileStore is being
phased out to make way for LiveLink. This will happen in the next 4-6
months during which time the enhanced FileStore can be used for finding
and porting over documents and files to the new System.
9.4 Overall Conclusions
These can be divided into 3 separate areas:
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Graham Butcher
9.4.1 Use of Total Development Environments

A Total Development Environment type solution is definitely recommended. It
appears that the more you spend the more functionality you get in the way of
built-in utilities.
With the 3 Development Environments looked at Visual Studio, ColdFusion and
CodeCharge, CodeCharge the latter came out as the most useful, mainly on the
basis of a cost to functionality ratio. The Author was fortunate in a way though, by
buying the product in its early days when it was less expensive. The down-side of
that was that in the early days it had more bugs (or undocumented features) that
had to be corrected and manually adjusted in the ASP Code before it would work as
expected.
Sometimes the generated code had to be manually tweaked to make it work eg
putting brackets or quotes around complex SQL queries. These modifications would
then be over-written with the next iteration of the automatically generated code.
These types of problems now appear to have been fixed in the latest released
version.
9.4.2 Reliability and Robustness of Solutions Produced
The Author can honestly report that, since producing the three solutions no-one has
found any bugs or undocumented features in the code. This is not surprising with
the first solution as it was not well publicised only reaching the working prototype
stage of development and the Concert Company reverting back to its parents.
Several people have offered to try and break the second and third solutions but
no-one has yet succeeded. This is testament to the professional level code
produced by CodeCharge Studio.
9.4.3 Use of Skills Developed during the Project for the benefit of the Test
Centre, XGH1
The Author now feels confident that he could produce bespoke Systems fairly
quickly to help the flow of information within his Centre, XGH1. This is only half of
the story though, as one of the objectives of this project is to spread the knowledge
and experience gained, to other people in the Centre and BT in general. This could
be achieved by distribution of the report to people interested in furthering the same
goal of improving information flow.
It is reassuring that since starting the project over 2 years ago, BT has adopted
several such Company wide Systems the Niku Enterprise System, managing
Projects, Finance and Workloads and also the FileStore Document Management
System.
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Chapter 10 : Acknowledgements
Special thanks are given to my two supervisors, Stefan Poslad, Queen Mary College
and Alan Wheeler, BT Exact.
Also thanks to Paul Wigens and Bob Reason for their help and encouragement with
FileStore development.
Thanks to John Williams, Alex Workman and Mike Carter with the document review
process.
Chapter 11 : References
Dr Phill
Edwards
Apache Web Course
Learning Tree - Course 541
2003
Kwok-Bun
Yue and Wei
Ding
Design and Evolution of An

Undergraduate Course on Web
Application Development
ITICSE, Leeds, UK
June 2830, 2004
Not
Applicable
www.macromedia.com
Not Applicable
Not
Applicable
Not
Applicable
www.codecharge.com
Not Applicable
Not
Applicable
Sean Hull
PHP and ASP.Net go head to

head
www.oracle.com/technology/pu
b/articles/hull_asp.html
August
2004
Prof Ziga
Turk
WODA - A slim Web Oriented

Database.
Internet Database Conference,

Hong Kong http://www.zturk.com/data/work
s/robots/6dae.htm
July 1999
Not
Applicable
www.ASP.Net
Not Applicable
Not
Applicable
Janet Valade
PHP and MySQL for Dummies
Hungry Minds Inc, ISBN: 07645-1650-7
2002
Author
Unknown
Building a Document
Management System
CCS Developer, Issue 1, Page

12.
August
2004
10
Bill Hatfield
Active Server Pages for

Dummies 2nd Edition
Hungry Minds Inc, ISBN: 07645-0603-X
1999
11
Nitin Pandey,
Yesh Singhal
and Mridula
Parihar
Visual Studio.Net All-in-One

Reference for Dummies
Hungry Minds Inc, ISBN: 07645-1626-4
2002
12
Ben Forta
and Nate
Weiss
ColdFusion MX, Web

Application Construction Kit,
Fifth Edition
MacroMedia Press, ISBN 0321-12516-9
2003
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Graham Butcher
Chapter 12 : Appendix A Source Code for all Solutions

All the source code for the 3 solutions is available from the Author on request.
Chapter 13 : Appendix B Glossary
ADO
Active Data Object - MS proprietary term
Apache
A Freeware Web Server
API
Application Programming Interface (or Language)
ASP
Active Server Page (Language) - not to be confused with Application Server Platform
CFML
ColdFusion Markup Language
CGI
Common Gateway Interface
ColdFusion
Macromedia's Server, Database Development Environment and Language
CSV
Comma separated variables (files)
DB
Database
GNU
"Not Unix"
GPL
General Public Licence
HTML
Hypertext Mark up Language
IDE
Integrated Development Environment
IIS
Internet Information System - Microsoft's Web Server
Java
A compiled language, similar to C++ - originates from Sun Computers
JavaScript
An interpreted, scripting language, similar to Java - originates from Sun Computers - runs
within user's browser - is browser dependent
JDBC
Java API for executing SQL statements - trademark not acronym
JScript
Microsoft's version of JavaScript
LAN
Local Area Network
Linux
Linus Torvald's UNIX - flavour of Unix
MS
Microsoft
NCSA
National Centre for Supercomputing Applications
NVT
Network Verification Testing
PERL
Practical Extraction and Reporting Language
PHP
Pre - Hypertext Processing language
RAD
Rapid Application Development
RDBMS
Relational Database Management System
SDH
Structured Digital Hierarchy - a transport mechanism
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Graham Butcher
Solaris
The name of Sun Computer's Operating System
SQL
Structured Query Language
UKIP
The UK IP part of BT
WODA
Web Oriented Database (System Prof Ziga Turk, see ref [6])
WOSA
Microsofts Windows Open Systems Architecture
XGH1
The Author's Cost Centre within BT Exact - like a Department
XML
eXtensible Mark up Language
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Graham Butcher
Chapter 14: Appendix C CodeCharge Product Feature Details

Most of the following was obtained from [4] www.codecharge.com
Application Builder
The Application Builder is perhaps the most advanced web development automation tool available to web
developers. With just a few clicks, users can create complex database-enabled Web applications with dozens-or even
hundreds-of web pages for data management and administration. For example, a user with a database of employees,
projects and tasks, can use the Application Builder to automatically create a Task List page, Employee Search page,
Employee Maintenance page, Project Maintenance page, and complete an entire application project in a few short
minutes.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

CodeCharge Studio combines visual interface design tools with an integrated development environment (IDE) to enable
developers to create powerful and sophisticated web applications in record time. CodeCharge Studio features powerful
HTML and code editors, an HTML design component, project explorer, property browser, dockable tool windows, and
many other features desired by professional developers. The built-in HTML editor lets users quickly design their
program's user interface and add database-connected grids, record maintenance forms, text boxes, list boxes, labels,
buttons, etc.
CodeCharge Studio gives users full access to the generated programming code through a full-featured, customizable
code editor with syntax highlighting and smart indenting to help distinguish different source code elements. Developers
can modify any part of the generated code without losing their customizations during subsequent code generations. This
translates to having complete control of the generated programs and eliminates the need to use external code editors.
The code editor also allows users to attach code to objects on the web page, for example, to send a confirmation email
when some information is submitted via the web.
Form and Component Builders

Component Builders are key constituents of CodeCharge Studio and help users assemble Web pages from multiple
components such as Grid, Editable Grid, Record, Directory, Login, or Search. A Builder is a dynamic
wizard that creates the appropriate component on the page by allowing the developer to specify the database table and
fields that are used to display, validate or accept information.
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Visual Query Builder

Developers can easily select tables and stored procedures or custom SQL as the data source for their data-aware
forms. A Visual Query Builder is provided for visual creation of SQL statements. For example, a user can create a query
that displays the list of employees, along with corresponding departments and roles. Developers can also specify
filtering criteria, for example, to display only the employees with names that match search criteria entered in another
page or form.
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Security Management/Role-based Access Control

CodeCharge Studio goes the extra mile in protecting generated Web applications by implementing additional security
features that prevent users from externally modifying forms and submitting invalid data to the server. CodeCharge
Studio allows developers to define secure role-based access to each page or form. Web users who don't have sufficient
privileges to access a page will be automatically redirected to the login page. The users who are authorized to access a
page but are not permitted to view or update a particular form will see the page without the form or will not see the
Insert/Update/Delete buttons needed to update the form.
Support for Multiple Programming Languages

CodeCharge Studio can generate programming code in C# and VB. Net (ASP.NET), VBScript (ASP), ColdFusion, Java
(Servlets or JSP), PHP, and PERL. Since the project model is stored in XML format, the programming language can be
changed at any time and the same project can be regenerated in multiple programming languages.
Extensibility
CodeCharge Studio has an open architecture and is fully extensible. Most of the functionality is implemented as HTML,
JavaScript, XML, and XSL. Users can customize almost any part of the built-in functionality or develop their own
components, such as Builders, Components, Actions, and Themes. In the future, users will be able to obtain the
CodeCharge SDK and develop their own code generation templates.
Multiple Database Connections

CodeCharge Studio supports multiple database connections to allow Web applications to utilize multiple data sources,
for example, to validate user access against an external user database.
Microsoft FrontPage Integration

CodeCharge Studio can be installed as an Add-In for Microsoft FrontPage. The Add-In extends Microsoft FrontPage
using a set of code-generating Builders, a project explorer, properties browser and code editor. FrontPage users can
use all of CodeCharge Studio's features directly within their familiar environment.
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Integration with Other Products

Web pages created with CodeCharge Studio can be opened with any web editor, either by opening the HTML files
saved by CodeCharge Studio on the disk, or by right-clicking on a page within the CodeCharge Studio IDE and
selecting Open Externally.
After a page is modified and saved, it is automatically available back within CodeCharge Studio. For example, users can
create a simple web page with CodeCharge Studio, then open it in Macromedia DreamWeaver and add sophisticated
graphics and layout features. Users can also copy and paste HTML code from any existing web page into a
CodeCharge Studio web page.
Extensive Database Support

CodeCharge Studio supports most existing databases via JET and ODBC to establish the design-time connection. The
server-side connection can be made using JET, ODBC, JDBC, ADO, DBI and PHPLib to connect to databases during
run-time. For example, the connection from a JSP project to an Oracle database can be established using the Oracle
JDBC driver. CodeCharge Studio goes as far as implementing bug fixes to PHPLib library for reliable use of PHP with
Oracle.
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Application Templates (Solutions)

CodeCharge Studio comes with ten templates and examples of pre-built web applications that can serve as starting
points for your applications. These applications are ready for customization and adaptation for organizational needs.
The templates include intranet applications such as Bug Tracking and ask Management Systems as well as an
Employee Directory. Internet application examples include an Online Store, Community Portal, Classifieds, Yellow
Pages, Discussions Forum, and an Event Management System.
Custom Code and Actions
Applications generated with CodeCharge Studio can be easily extended by adding custom code or by using any of the
predefined Actions. Actions are user-definable code components that are inserted into events. Many actions are
provided with the product, while additional actions can be created by users and shared with others. Internally, actions
consist of XML and XSL code that can be easily customized.
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Unlike manually edited code that cannot always be recovered without the use of a versioning System or a backup,
actions can be regenerated at any time.
Code Generation Engine

CodeCharge Studio users create web applications by connecting to a database and placing data-aware forms and
components on a page. During the page design process, the representation of the project and all of its pages is saved
in XML format in addition to HTML code that contains the page design. During project publishing, the HTML files are
copied to the server while the XML files are used to generate server code using XSL code templates. This flexible
architecture allows users to regenerate their web application in any programming language at any time. For example,
users can generate a C# application then regenerate it in Java. More advanced users can even create their own XSL
processing templates that automatically generate the documentation, UML diagrams, or test scripts for their
applications.
On the server, the generated code is fully separated from the HTML. During execution, the code files load
corresponding HTML files into memory, replace static content with database values and output the final HTML to the
browser. This method of separating the code from the HTML design content allows designers to make future changes to
the site without having to modify the code.
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Sample Databases
Several sample databases and applications are provided with the distribution to help you get started with CodeCharge
Studio.
Chapter 15: Appendix D ColdFusion Features
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Graham Butcher
< End of document >
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