Transcript The Web and data management

The Web and Data
Management
Experience is never limited, and it is never complete;
it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spiderweb of the finest silken threads suspended in the
chamber of consciousness, and catching every airborne particle in its tissue.
Henry James
New data management role
Managing Web site data
Linking databases to the Web
Multimedia databases
Information presentation
Information architecture
The macro organization of information
Information design
The arrangement of information structures
Information arts
The arrangement of information elements
on a page
Organization models
Type
Linear
Hierarchical
Examples
A novel
An organizational chart
Web
Parallel
Thesaurus
Airline timetable
Matrix
Overlay
Calendar
X-ray
Spatial zoom Magnification of a thumbnail image
Navigation aids
Signs let visitors know where they
are
can go
Good examples are the London
Underground and Paris Métro
The design process
Architecture
Outline the broad structure
Use an outliner
Design
Clarify the form of each section
Show linkages between pages
Information arts
Add the information elements to each page
The design process
Consistency
A consistent look and feel accelerates
information finding
A performance
Web sites are expected to be entertaining
as well as informative
The Web site defines the firm for many
stakeholders
• The shop window or building facade
Web site management
Creating and maintaining HTML
Use a special-purpose editor
Managing a Web site
Use a special-purpose tool such as Adobe
GoLive
Site management
Site management
Visual site management
Automatic link changes
Link checker
Internal
External
Web site publishing
Some guidelines
All images in one file
Consistent naming
Lowercase
Resource Description
Framework
We need a more precise description of
what is on the Web
Move the Web from machine-readable
to machine-understandable.
The RDF is a general framework for
describing any Internet resource
Sample RDF
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/">
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.wiley.com/college/watson"
dc:creator="Richard T. Watson"
dc:title="Data Management"
dc:description="Support for the 4th edition
of Data Management: Databases and Organizations
by Richard T. Watson"
dc:date="2003-07-01" />
</rdf:RDF>
DBMS connectivity
The Web browser is the interface of
choice
One-time installation
Global
Simple design is easy to learn
A standard interface makes new
applications easier to learn
Three-tier architecture
DBMS
server
Web
browser
Web
server
Web
browser
DBMS
server
DBMS
server
Options
Common gateway interface (CGI)
Does not scale well
Proprietary Web server APIs
Ties to vendor’s software
ASP (active server pages)
SSJS (server side JavaScript)
Java servlets and JSP
Java is a powerful open standard
PHP
An open source server side scripting language that generates
HTML
Platform independent
Simple PHP example
simple.php
PHP to run a query
form to enter the
query:
sqlcmd.html
script to run
the query:
execsqlcmd.php
PHP to insert data
Data entry screen
mapinsert.html
Script to insert
data into the
database
mapinsert.php
Key points
The Web is giving many applications a
new face
It is relatively easy to create a Web
interface to a database
There are many choices
Open standards are preferable for longterm investments
e.g., PHP or Java