Welcome to W3-mSQL version 2.0. This product represents the second generation of HTML scripting product developed by Hughes Technologies Pty Ltd. of Australia. The first generation product, provided a simple programatic interface to the mSQL database system from within an HTML document. W3-mSQL 2.0 goes beyond the functionality provided by the first generation W3-mSQL product to enable the development of entire programs within a WWW page while offering comprehensive access control and security features.W3-mSQL is a complete programming language. It is similar is style and syntax to the C programming language and the ESL scripting language. Using W3-mSQL, you can generate HTML code "on-the-fly" in the same way you do when you write custom CGI programs. What's more, you can mix normal HTML code with W3-mSQL code so that you only need to use the CGI styled approach where you actually have to.
To achieve this, W3-mSQL code is included in your HTML code. It is included inside <! > tags. As an example, we've included a W3-mSQL version of the legendary Hello World program.
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Hello World from W3-mSQL</TITLE> <HEAD> <BODY> <CENTER> <H1>Introduction to W3-mSQL<H1> <! printf("Hello World\n"); > <\CENTER> <BODY> <HTML>Example 1. Hello World
As you can see, there is a line of what looks like C code in the middle of the HTML page. When the page is loaded through the W3-mSQL CGI program, anything enclosed in <! > tags is parsed and processed as an embedded program. Any output generated by the program is sent to the user's browser. In this case, the string "Hello World" would be sent as part of the HTML page to the browser.There can be any number of W3-mSQL tags within a single page and there can be any number of lines of code within a single W3-mSQL tag. The structure of the language and the functionality available to the page designer is outlined in the following sections.
To execute the script depicted in figure 1 you must not just specify the path to the file in the URL as you would nromally do. If you do that, your browser will just be sent sent the unprocessed HTML. To execute the script you must specify a URL that executes the W3-mSQL binary and tells it to load and process your script. The W3-mSQL binary is called nph-w3-msql and will usually be located in the /cgi-bin directory (if it isn't there contact your system administrator). If the normal URL of a W3-mSQL enhaced script is /staff/lookup.html, you would load it using the following URL:
/cgi-bin/nph-w3-msql/staff/lookup.html This URL instructs the web server to execute the W3-mSQL binary and tells it to load the /staff/lookup.html script file.
Structure of the Language
- Library Modules
- W3-mSQL Standard module
- W3-mSQL MiniSQL module
- Complete list of W3-mSQL module functions
- Security Features
- Private W3-mSQL scripts
- Access Control
- Security Configuration with W3-Auth
- Defining secure areas
- Adding users
- Creating privileged users
- Defining groups
- Adding users to groups
- Writing your own module
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