Web Database Applications

The Internet has created a huge demand for user-friendly, yet sophisticated, Web-based database applications. But with the existing technology, it is very difficult (and time consuming) for most software developers to put information on the Web for interactive use.  To fill this gap, Chesapeake Data Systems has developed software tools that assist analysts and programmers in developing sophisticated, yet user-friendly, Web-based database applications. Our tools are used to create and maintain a data dictionary that includes almost all of the application requirements and specifications, from tables, fields, and indices to default values and display orders, helping us get the specifications right the first time. Our programmers then use the information in the data dictionary, combined with an extensive program library, to create Web pages for an application.   This approach allows us to help organizations implement database applications on the Web much more quickly than when using traditional development methods. And by taking a standardized approach, all of the Web applications will have a common “look and feel”

Analysts use our data dictionary to document the specifications for entry/edit forms and reports:

• Table Attributes – security level, sort order, filter, display order on menu, etc.
• Field attributes – type, required, mask, updateable, default value, Boolean values, radio button values, corresponding “lookup table”, security level, field events (to run code when data changes), etc
• Field types extended for Web use (hyperlink, email, phone, SSN, etc.)
• Display attributes – caption, display order, display size, tab (of a tabbed web-page), column, font, color, etc.
• Child tables – which ones are to be included on the Record form
• Table indices – allows the user to select the sort order for a form
• Buttons specific to a form and the code to be run when the button is selected

For reports, a separate HTML file specifies the report layout, thus providing maximum flexibility to the analyst. 

Each “entry/edit” Web page includes forms for: List, Filter, Record, Report, and Export (see examples on the following pages).  The program library includes the code for the  navigation buttons (First, Next, Prev, Last, etc.), and additional code provides much of the database processing (reading, adding, updating, and deleting records). 

Each Report Web page is simply a Filter form that allow the user to enter the selection criteria and control various aspects of the report (subtitle, totals-only, etc.)  (For more details, see the separate document for Chesapeake Data Systems - Web Reports).

(Click here for a more complete list of features and functions.)