General Information

When you want to create a new WWWdb-application, you need at least one new file. It is a rc-file, that defines the layout of your page. For special extensions you will also need a plugin-sourcefile with the extension .pl.

There are two ways, of creating new applications:

1. Create them manual
2. Use the WWWdb-application-wizard for creation of that files over the web

First let us explain the relations between the URL of the application and the place in the filesystem. Imagine the following URL: http://localhost/wwwdb/ffffffffffffffff/WWWdb/WWWdb:Tools:ShowDoc;id=112,en. The part that is interesting now is the blue-colored application-part. In this case, the application (WWWdb:Tools:ShowDoc) lies in the directory $WWWDB_BASE/lib/WWWdb/Tools as file ShowDoc.rc and ShowDoc.pl. This means that every path-delimiter is mapped to a ":" in the URL.

Creating an application over the Web with the Wizard:

This creation works in several steps:

1. | Select a database-source Here you can select a table from the current database. This table will be the base for the new application. If your application is not based on a special database-table, you can select the 'virtual' table UserFormat. You can also define if you want to use the (eventually) existing files, or force the creation of a new file.
2. | Define the fields and the layout of the form This second step allows you to enter all fields and/or labels, you want to have in your application page. You can also define a basic field type for all entry-fields and if they should appear in the update- and query-mode. The header for this page, the default sort-field and the number of records, that are displayed at once can be defined here too. If you choose the finish-button here, your application is ready!
3. | Define the appearence-order for the controls Since all entries are placed in a table, you can define the order and the place in the table for every field here. (See also the documentation for the Pos entry here)
4. | Define the buttons for the different states and Query-mode design For each of the modes Init, Work and Query you can define the allowed Buttons and their labels and the text of the header of this mode. The second background-color for the query-mode can also be defined. It allows the easier reading of large listings of records.
5. | Define the label- and field-attributes for every field The different attributes for the label (like fonts, colors, alignment, etc.) and the attributes for the special field-types of entryfields (Text, Selectbox, Radio, etc.) are set here field for field.
6. | Define plugins for the application This is the place for programming the plugins. A list of all possible plugins for that application allows to select as many as you want. A source skeleton can be generated for that plugins. But - when I'm onest - using a real great editor, like emacs is better, than using a web-form for editing. For small plugins this is a fast way however.

That's it!!