WebBase Consulting Services Info
 
What is WebBase?
Expertelligence Inc's WebBase is a web server for 32-Bit Windows that allows access to any ODBC datasource.
 
WebBase offers application developers a powerful yet easy to use platform on which they can quickly develop and deploy Intranet database applications. 
 
WebBase can access a database  and issue SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.  WebBase provides programmers with the easiest way to issue SQL SELECT queries and generate dynamic web pages from the resultsets.
 
WebBase is a full Web-server and ODBC Database Server.  Web applications are developed using the WebBase Macro Langauge tags embedded within standard HTML files. The WebBase Macro Language provides the programmer with the SQL database access, procedural constructs, user-defined variables, system variables, state-management, and functions (math, logic, comparison, string manipulation, date/time) that are needed to develop powerful Web database applications. 
 
Also included with each WebBase package is
WebberActive, a powerful HTML editor that recognizes the WebBase macro language. 
 
Additionally, the WebBase Server features several 'options' that can be separatly licensed.  These include:

      
How does WebBase work?
With WebBase, the program code (SQL statements, procedural logic, etc.) resides embedded within your HTML pages.  This is a compile-free environment, much like Microsoft Active-Server Pages.  The WebBase macro code is intereted on the fly by the WebBase Server. 
 
Here is how it works:

    1. When a page is requested by a web-browser , the page is parsed by the WebBase Server for WebBase macro tags.
    2. The WebBase Server interpets these tags and replaces them with dynamic content (usually the results of a SQL query formatted as HTML).
    3. The resulting 'dynamic' web page is returned to the requesting web-browser.
      
Rapid Application Development using WebBase
How difficult is WebBase?  Any person with moderate programming skills can use WebBase to quickly design, develop, deploy, and maintain powerful Intranet database applications.
 
Skills needed to develop sophisticated Intranet database applications for the WebBase server include:

      
While this may seem at first glance to be alot of diferent skills, this is not really the case.  The only proprietary language involved here is the WebBase scripting language.  WebBase is simple and very complete.  It provides the tags needed to execute SQL and process the results.  WebBase code is executed on the server, as the WebBase server serves up a page, it encounters the WebBase tags and performs the indicated action.  SQL and HTML are standards-based languages.  Time spent learning SQL and HTML can only help to make a better programmer, not only with WebBase, but with any of the other web/database programming languages and tools.  It is not really necessary to learn how to program in JavaScript.  JavaScript client-side data-validation function libraries can be downloaded freely from the Internet.  The programmer only needs to know how to call these validation functions from within the HTML form.  I have assembled a JavaScript data-validation library that I use in all of my WebBase applications. I saved it with the webBase .hti (include file) extension.  When I have an HTML form that requires data-validation, I  use the WebBase include macro to insert the JavaScript code into the form:
{insert DataValidationLibrary.hti}
When the WebBase Server is serving up the page, it inserts the JavaScript in place of the include tag.  I only have to maintain JavaScript code in one file instead of in many different HTML files.
 

The two development paths you can choose from (OmniForm vs. straight HTML)

In designing intranet applications using WebBase, the programmer can take one of two paths. If you have licenced the OmniForm Internet suite, you can create a data-entry application from an existing paper form. First, you use OmniForm Internet Publisher to either scan in an Existing paper form (or design one from scratch using OmniFormÆs form designer).  This produces an FML file.  You then run the WebBase Experforms WebWizard against the FML file.  Experforms will create a Microsoft Access table (in a new or existing Microsoft Access Database MDB file) and generate the code necessary to tie the OmniForm to the table for INSERT, UPDATE, and SELECT operations.
 

My personal experience with WebBase

How did I come to choose WebBase?
What was the problem at hand?
 
 
My WebBase Intranet Applications
PIC (Perpetual Inventory Control System)
RIMS (Records Information Management System)
HSISTRAK (Health Services Information System Tracking)
SPARE (Summary of permitting Applications Received)
EQC E-Forms