> Subject: Web Database
> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 22:12:20 -0400
> From: James Michael Keller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: redhat-list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Slowly building up my systems knowlage now :)
>
> Next thing to get under my belt, I want to be able to have a form based
> database take entries, insert into the database, and be able to do key
> searches in each catagory, keywords, etc...
>
> Then generate result.
>
> Projects to "play" with this - a product registrry, and a classified ad
> system (anything from personals to used cars)
>
> Something akin to yahoo's classified system. Not that I intend to
> compete, but I'd like to start building what's in my experience
> portfolio - like getting a job with yahoo :)
>
> I'm looking for some pointers to software and documentations for this
> type of things.
>
> System is running RH 5.0 with errata updates, Apache is working fine,
> all my internal networks are fine, firewalling, etc.
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> James Michael Keller | [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> (c)1998 All rights reserved | http://www.radix.net/~jmkeller
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh let me tell you a story. . .
There once was a team of four graduate students at Hawaii Pacific
University (ok, this is really happening, even as I write) who decided
their class project for System Analysis and Design (IS-612) was a
web database that would allow borrowers to prequalify for loans after
filling out the application online. The decision support system would
make its recommendation and send off the e-mail to the lenders, and
a report of potential lenders provided to the borrower. Great idea.
We decided to use a permanently connected Linux box (RH 5, straight
out of the box), a SQL server, and CGI+HTML. We had books to tell
us how to do it (The Linux Database, Beginning Linux Programming,
and others). Our project was approved, and we presented our Software
Project Management Plan (SPMP). We even got the top score for that
phase.
Then we decided to test it out, to make sure we could do it. Yeah,
we should have done that BEFORE we asked to do it. Guess what?
No go. The commercial SQL server that came with The Linux Database
(Just Logic) would not work on the 486 web server. Oops. It did work
on the Pentium 120 laptop I use, but it took 12 seconds to return the
results of a simple query via the loopback devide. Unacceptable.
So we tried mSQL - won't run on a 486 (segmentation fault). So
I downloaded the source, recompiled. Won't do anything, except as
root, and it doesn't understand "standard" SQL commands. Doooh.
Commercial SQL server #3 said in the docs "Pentium required" so it
went to the shelf. What to do, what to do?
I created a simple shell routine that did the same thing as the
baseball example that came in the book. Its response time was
under 1/2 second (the SQL version was 12 seconds). I was
inspired.
With no shell programming experience (but well versed in relational
database design), I built a RDBMS supporting multiple tables,
concatenated keys, foreign keys, queries, selects, restricts,
reports, sorts, and communicates via CGI+HTML. In bash!!! It
took 60 hours to get the lender side up and running, including
the CGI interface to the shell via the environment variables.
Keep in mind, this is with no bash and no CGI programming experience.
Let me tell you, you're in for some fun. Build a prototype.
Based on this experience, I'm not too excited about SQL servers.
Why did I post this? So others may critique my methods, try the
database, and hopefully, provide feedback on its response time
and robustness. I'll provide the source code, if anyone shows
interest, in exchange for a code review. Hey, I'm still new at
this - I just started shell programming last week.
Link:
http://gtoft.dyn.ml.org/owl/lender-main.html
Thanks.
George
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