School of Information The University of Texas at Austin

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LIS 386.13 Information Technologies and the
Information ProfessionsWeb-Based Databases

• R. E. Wyllys
• Last revised 2003 Apr 22

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Lesson Objectives

• You will
• Understand the four main types of uses of
  databases on the World-Wide Web
• Become familiar with some of the tools and
  techniques involved in developing Web-based
  databases (WBDBs)

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What Do WBDBs Do?

• What are the purposes for which WBDBs are used?
  Feiler (1999) distinguishes four main purposes
• "Publishing data on the Web."
• "Here, you use the Web as a publication tool
  browsers interact with dynamic hypertext markup
  language DHMTL, application servers, and
  database queries to present the information as
  requested. The data flow is one way from the
  database to the user."
• "Sharing data on the Web."
• "In this scenario you use databases and the Web
  to share data among people the data flow is
  bidirectionalsome people enter data, other
  people look it up."

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What Do WBDBs Do? (cont'd)

• "E-commerce."
• "This area includes all online commercial
  transactions. Although the data flow is
  bidirectional, it typically consists of a
  relatively large amount of data that flows from
  the database to the customer (during the shopping
  and evaluation steps) that is followed by a
  relatively small amount of data that flows from
  the customer to the database as the sale is
  consummated."
• "Totally database-driven Web sites."
• "You can use databases to generate Web pages and
  keep them up to date. In this case, the database
  is usually invisible to the user it is a
  behind-the-scenes assistant to a Web site."

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WBDBs Used for Publishing on the Web

• Here are some examples, from A to Z, of WBDBs
  whose primary purpose is publishing information.
  I recommend that you look at these WBDBs bearing
  that purpose in mind, and that you think about
  how they succeed or fail in achieving the
  purpose.
• WBDBs on astronomy
• The Space Telescope Science Institute offers
  pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and
  other information on astronomy
• The Planetary Society is an organization that
  promotes exploration of the solar system. Its
  Website offers news about current and prospective
  exploratory activities
• WBDBs about automobiles
• Edmunds.com is primarily a DB for publishing
  information about automobiles (although it also
  maintains a forum for exchanges of information
  and opinions)
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  its name explains it
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety its name
  explains it
• WBDBs for library and information science
• American Society for Information Science and
  Technology provides both information and links
• Association of Information Management
  Professionals (formerly, Association of Records
  Managers and Administrators) provides both
  information and links

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WBDBs Used for Publishing (cont'd)

• WBDBs for library and information science
  (cont'd)
• American Library Association main page
• ALA Resources for Parents, Teens and Kids
  provides links, in itself a form of publishing
  information
• Libraries, Children the Internet Questions
  Answers provides both information and links
• Teen Hoopla An Internet Guide for Teens provides
  both information and links
• Music Library Association provides both
  information and links
• National Archives and Records Administration
  provides Access to Archival Databases, a research
  tool that makes a selection of the Archives' most
  popular electronic records available to the
  public over the Internet
• Society of American Archivists provides both
  information and links
• Special Libraries Association provides both
  information and links
• Texas Library Association provides both
  information and links
• WBDBs on various subjects
• Consumer Reports Online provides ratings of goods
  and services, along with general advice on
  personal finance and product safety
• Dilbert.com provides access to the Dilbert comic
  strip
• Flags of the World is a WBDB about vexillology,
  the study of flags

I am indebted to Ms. E. Joanmarie Marks for
suggesting these sites.
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WBDBs Used for Publishing (cont'd)

• WBDBs on various subjects (cont'd)
• frankandearnest.com offers access to the Frank
  and Earnest comic strip (with some of the world's
  best puns)
• Hoaxbusters, "a public service of the CIAC and
  the U.S. Department of Energy" exposes Internet
  hoaxes
• Iceland offers a wide variety of information
  about Iceland
• InternetNews.com provides news about the
  Internet, especially about commercial activities
• Scientific American offers information on science
  and access to experts in many scientific fields
• The Texas Records and Information Locator
  (TRAIL), of the Texas State Library, provides
  access to Texas state agencies and information
  sources.
• The U.S. Postal Service Rate Calculator enables
  you to calculate the postage required on letters
  and packages, both domestically and
  internationally.
• WBDBs on zoology
• University of Michigan Zoology Museum its name
  explains it
• World Lecture HallZoology, UT-Austin provides
  links to lectures, pictures, and divers sources
  of information on zoology

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WBDBs Used for Publishing (cont'd)

• Other kinds of WBDBs whose primary purpose can be
  viewed as publishing (after finding) information
  include search engines and online public-access
  catalogs
• Web-Search Engines maintain enormous DBs about
  the contents of Websites. Some examples
• AltaVista Advanced Search
• C'est Trouvé specializes in information in French
• Google
• Infobel and InfoSpace offer directory information
  for people and businesses
• InfoSel offers search capabilities and news about
  Mexico and other parts of Latin America
• Northern Light
• Suchmaschine.com specializes in information in
  German
• Yahoo!

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WBDBs Used for Publishing (cont'd)

• Many libraries provide online access to their
  holdings via online public-access catalogs
  (OPACs). Clearly, OPACs are WBDBs. Some
  examples
• The Austin Public Library Catalog
• The Catálogo de la Biblioteca Daniel Cosío
  Villegas of El Colegio de México
• Note This appears to be inaccessible with
  Netscape use Internet Explorer.
• The Catálogo de Recursos de Información del
  Centro de Información-Biblioteca of the Instituto
  Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
  (ITESM)
• The Catalogue BN-OPALE-PLUS of the Bibliothèque
  Nationale Française. (After you reach the
  hyperlinked page, click on "Connexion au
  catalogue". You should experiment with both the
  Recherche Simple and the Recherche Combinée.)
• The Catalogue of the National Library of
  Australia
• The Harvard OnLine Library Information System
  (HOLLIS) of Harvard University
• The Library of Congress Online Catalog
• The OPACs of the University of California,
  Berkeley (GLADIS) and the University of
  California System (MELVYL) are both available via
  Library Online Catalog Systems
• The UTNetCat of the UT-Austin General Libraries
• I recommend that you visit all these online
  catalogs, do a search in each, and compare the
  techniques that the catalogs offer and the
  results they yield. You will find interesting
  similarities and interesting differences.

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WBDBs Used for Sharing Data

• Forums and Chat Rooms typify the WBDBs that are
  using for sharing data and information (and often
  misinformation). These uses are characterized by
  a two-way flow of information and data between
  the user and the WBDB, with the user typically
  supplying a substantial part of the flow. Some
  examples
• CSICOP Chat Room, of the Committee for the
  Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
  Paranormal
• Edmunds.com Town Hall Community, "where smart car
  shoppers talk about cars, trucks and related
  consumer issues" (the forum of Edmunds.com)
• Straight Dope Message Board, a forum for
  discussing topics related to Cecil Adams's
  syndicated column, "The Straight Dope"
• Teens Chat and Hang-Out Home Page, a chat room
  for teenagers
• ThirdAge, a forum for seniors to "meet talk"
• Upper Valley Materials Exchange, which links
  businesses and community members who have surplus
  furniture, supplies, materials, equipment, etc.
  with schools (and other non-profits) in the Upper
  Connecticut Valley that have a use for them"
• And, of course, any of the 59,000 Usenet Groups
  can be regarded as a WBDB for sharing data (or at
  least opinions) and, lamentably often, for
  solicitations from businesses and services,
  pornography, etc.

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WBDBs Used for E-Commerce

• As you are undoubtedly already aware, an enormous
  number of Websites are devoted to commercial
  activities, also characterized by a two-way flow
  of information and data between the user and the
  WBDB, with the user supplying only a limited part
  of the flow. As examples, we can mention four
  Websites that deal with books, both new and
  second-hand
• Alibris.com
• Amazon.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• Powells.com
• Note Each of the above sites is slightly
  different from the others. You should compare
  each of them against the others with respect to
  their design, organization, and means of
  obtaining information from their users.

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WBDBs Used to Drive Websites

• Some WBDBs serve to keep Websites constantly
  up-to-date with current information. A few
  examples
• CNBC.com, financial news from National
  Broadcasting Company
• CNN.com, general news from Cable News Network
  (CNN)
• CNNFN.com, financial news from CNN
• Note I recommend your comparing CNBC and CNNFN.
  Though they target exactly the same audience,
  their designs and organization are somewhat
  different.
• Greenwich provides the exact time (at the moment
  you open its Webpage), along with information
  about time-keeping
• The current weather in any of 10,000 cities is
  available from CNN Online e.g., click here,
  Austin, for the weather in Austin
• Weather.com, the Web version of the Weather
  Channel on cable television, provides a variety
  of weather information
• Note Again I recommend your comparing CNN's and
  the Weather Channel's displays of local weather
  information.

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Techniques for Developing and Maintaining WBDBs

• The WBDBs discussed in the foregoing slides have
  to be developed and maintained. The methods
  involved in doing so can be highly technical, so
  we shall merely sketch herein some general ideas
  about these methods.
• Underlying all WBDBs is a relational
  database-management system (RDBMS), together with
  one or more relational databases (RDBs) that
  actually contain the data or information of
  interest
• A Webpage defined in HTML or Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
  controls the visual display that the user of the
  WBDB sees.
• An interface (1) receives information from the
  user and passes it to the RDBMS, (2) extracts
  information from the RDB (with the assistance of
  the RDBMS), and (3) provides the information to
  the Webpage, whose HTML or DHTML structure makes
  the information visible.

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Techniques for Developing and Maintaining WBDBs
(cont'd)

• RDBMSs used for WBDBs
• Although Microsoft Access 97 (and later versions)
  offer built-in support for WBDBs, the limitations
  of MS Access restrict it to Websites that
  experience small levels of use (no more than a
  few simultaneous users).
• Large and heavily used WBDBs typically use
  high-level RDBMSs such as IBM DB2, Informix,
  Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase. A
  substantial majority of such sites use Oracle.

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Techniques for Developing and Maintaining WBDBs
(cont'd)

• The interfaces used for WBDBs fall into two broad
  classes
• Interfaces intended for a specific application
  and written in a scripting language that conforms
  to Common Gateway Interface (GCI) standards
• A script is a set of programming-language
  statements, typically (but not necessarily) short
  and used to accomplish certain actions on the
  Internet
• Languages used in scripts include C, C, Java,
  Perl, and Visual Basic for Applications
• Interfaces developed commercially for a certain
  class of applications
• Commercial interfaces include those of Oracle,
  SAP, and Siebel.

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Techniques for Developing and Maintaining WBDBs
(cont'd)

• A popular tool for aiding in the development of
  CGI scripts is ColdFusion.
• You can think of ColdFusion's role in working
  with CGI scripts as analogous to that of
  Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage in aiding the
  preparation of HTML-formatted pages.
• P. Mohseni (1996, p. 238) describes ColdFusion as
  having the capabilities to
• "Insert and update records in database tables
  with HTML forms
• "Submit database queries that can then be used to
  dynamically generate Web pages
• "Intermix the results of queries with HTML tags
  and text for complete control over how data is
  displayed and formatted
• "Track users and customize their view of Web
  pages by using information about their browser,
  location, or other preferences
• "Use advanced data input and reporting features
• "Validate form field entries as integer, floating
  point, date or numeric range

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Techniques for Developing and Maintaining WBDBs
(cont'd)

• ColdFusion capabilities (cont'd)
• "Make conditional statements (if . . . else
  branching) to dynamically customize output
  returned to users and decisions about queries
  submitted to the database
• "Embed SQL statements in templates to specify
  queries. SQL statements may be dynamically
  customized using data from from submissions, URL
  query strings, and CGI environment variables, as
  well as the results returned from other queries
• "Execute multiple SQL queries and send SQL
  queries to multiple databases for each client
  request
• "Support Java and JavaScripts
• "Support Netscape cookies for state control"

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Electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM)

• An example of the use of interface software
  tailored for a class of applications is what is
  known as "Electronic Customer Relationship
  Management" (eCRM) software.
• J. Killelea (2001) describes the general nature
  of eCRM as follows
• "A database pulls together customer
  datapurchases, demographics and preferencesfrom
  various sources, such as websites, transaction
  systems and call centers.
• "Data is segmented according to set
  criteriafrequent shoppers, attributes of
  shoppers, location of shoppersand personalized
  for products and services.

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Electronic Customer Relationship Management
(eCRM) (cont'd)

• The general nature of eCRM (cont'd)
• "Based on personalized information, customers
  receive promotional materialsales, new products
  and servicesvia the website, email, snail mail
  or phone.
• "Customers respond to promotional offers by
  making a purchase, inquiring about a product or
  seeking customer service. This information is
  sent back to the database and the process begins
  again."
• Vendors of eCRM software include Accrue Software,
  Broadbase Software, E.piphany, and Informatica.

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Electronic Customer Relationship Management
(eCRM) (cont'd)

• B. B. Tulsi (2001) offers an interesting example
  of how eCRM technology can work in medical
  practice.
• "E-health companies make it possible for doctors
  to write or refill prescriptions in about 20
  seconds using their cell phones, PDAs personal
  digital assistants or dedicated wireless
  devices. This not only saves time for the
  doctors and pharmacists, it prevents
  miscommunications and avoids mistakes.
• "The doctor uses his cell phone, PDA or
  dedicated prescriber to look up information on a
  patient, enter his diagnosis and make drug
  selections
• "The wireless device is linked to an onsite server

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Electronic Customer Relationship Management
(eCRM) (cont'd)

• eCRM technology in medical practice (cont'd)
• "The server connects to a database that tells
  which medicines are allowed under the patient's
  insurance plan. It will also indicate if the
  prescribed drug will cause a reaction with any
  other medication the patient is currently taking.
• "Once everything checks out, the server faxes a
  prescription to the patient's pharmacist, which
  might be a retail, mail order or online outlet."
• Note Currently eCRM software is much too
  expensive for use in academic, public, or school
  libraries. But as it decreases in price,
  interesting possibilities will be opened for
  using such software in libraries and other
  information agencies.

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Summary

• We have looked at Web-based databases and at how
  they are used, developed, and maintained.
• It seems entirely safe to predict that
• WBDBs will become increasingly prevalent and
  increasingly sophisticated in the ways they
  receive (and sometimes extract, as with
  "cookies") information from users, as well as in
  the ways in which they display information to
  users.
• Though the most sophisticated uses of WBDBs are
  currently found in the commercial arena, such
  uses will spread steadily into the non-profit and
  other less well financed arenas.

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Web-Based Databases Cover the World
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References

• Antelman, Kristin. Getting Out of the HTML
  Business The Database-Driven Web Site Solution.
  Information Technology and Libraries. 1999
  December 18(4) 176-181
• Feiler, Jesse. Database-Driven Web Sites. San
  Francisco, CA Morgan Kaufmann 1999.
  ISBN0-12-251336-3.
• Killelea, Jim. Electronic Salesmen Score More
  Sales Per Customer. Technology Investor. 2001
  January 1(11)18-20
• Mohseni, Piroz. Web Database Primer Plus
  Connect Your Database to the World Wide Web Using
  HTML, CGI, and Java. Corte Madera, CA Waite
  Group 1996. ISBN1-57169-070-0
• Tulsi, Bernard B. E-health Whacks Waste
  Away600 Billion a Year. Technology Investor.
  2001 January 1(11)22-25