How-Tos

How do I let POD display the stored value of an item for a DB entry in my html file?
First of all, you can only display stored value of a DB entry and its items on the entry-display pages.
Now the syntax:

1. Substitue the "DB Item Name" with real DB item name like "web site", etc., that is actually in your DB.
2. Link="..." can take 5 values --- email, www, index, admin-index, user-index. The first two will cause the value of the item be linked with email address or hypertext links. For example, if you set Link="www", then POD will replace this entire tag with <a href="DB Item Value">DB Item Value</a> (of course POD will use the real DB item value in place of the "DB Item Value" in this link). Link="index" will cause the item be linked to sing-admin.html or sing-user.html (which should be used to display the information of that DB entry) depending on the current authorization mode (administrative or user mode). Link="admin-index" will force to link in administrative mode even if current "authority" is "user" or absent. Link="user-index" will force a link in user mode. These 3 links should be used only in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html" because in the multi-entry situation you would want to have a link that leads to a particular entry.
3. The SortTag is a text tag that will be put in front of the value of the item, and will have a link that leads to redisplay of the current html page with the currently-displayed entries re-sorted regarding to this item. If you put a "*" in front of "Whatever" (as SortTag="*Whatever") POD will attach a link that sorts DB in descending order instead of the default ascending order (Please note that user of your DB can toggle the sort order by clicking again on the item they just sorted with, thereby overriding your setting here). If you set Link="www" and SortTag="URL: ", the result display will be <a href="POD-produced sort link">URL: </a><a href= "DB Item Value">DB Item Value</a> (note that the link on "URL:" will be dynamically produced by POD).
4. If the DB ItemValue for the item you're trying to display is actually empty because user did not enter the info when they add it to the database, you can specify a default text to be displayed in place of the empty value using the DBdefault= "default text you like".< BR> Please note that in this POD-specific tag, only DBItem= "DB Item Name" is a required component, all other ones are optional and you can omit them if you want.

How do I let POD redisplay an entry in another format or redisplay it after an operation on the entry is completed?
Here two sets of tags must be used:
1.  and . This pair of tags indicates that the content between these two tags can be redisplayed when  and  tags. If you put multiple pairs in the file, only the first pair will be used for redisplay purposes.
2.  This tag should be in opcomplete.html. It specifies that POD should open the file "sing-user.html" when it sees this tag, then search "sing-user.html" for tags  and . POD will then replace the "" tag in opcomplete.html with the content in sing-user.html that is between the  and  tags.
Note that you should never put  tag AND a pair of  and  tags inside opcomplete.html because this will create an endless loop of redisplaying the same html file again and again.

How do I let POD repeatedly display a section in my html file, only that each time POD display the section using the data from a different DB entry?

This functionality basically enables POD to display multiple entries on one html page. The following tags do the magic:
 and  This pair of tags should only be put in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html". They are used to indicate that the content between these two tags should be repeatedly displayed for each DB entry found in a search. So when your user's search found 5 entries, the content between these two tags will be displayed 5 times sequentially, each time with data specific for one of the 5 entries found.

How do I let POD display the total number of entries that are found in a search?
Use . This tag should only be put in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html". It will be replaced by POD with the number of entries that are found in a search.

How do I let POD display the links to other search result pages?
Use . This tag should only be put in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html". It will be replaced by POD with the page numbers in the following format "<-Prev 1 2 3 Next->" (assuming the page that's currently displayed is page2). The words "prev" and "next" can be replaced using the .lann file (instruction on how to use .lann file can be found in List of Files page).

How do I let POD dynamically display an image based on the value of an entry item?
Use <img src="DB Item Name1" DBdefault="default image link" DBlink="DB Item Name2">. This tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD finds this tag, it will replace the tag with <a href="DB Item Value2"><img src="DB Item Value1"></a>. If the value for "DB Item Name1" is empty, POD will display the image which is designated by "default image link" instead. Do note that you do not actually store the image in a POD DB, you simply store the html link to the image you want displayed in the DB and then use this tag to have POD display the image in web browser.
The DBlink="..." can have http links in it too (it doesn't have to be a DB Item Name). But in that case, the images in all the entries on this page will be linked to the same http link, which is probably not what you would want.
You can also set DBLink="index" or "admin-index" or "user-index". When POD sees this, it will make a link that links to the individual entry just like in <!--DBItem="DB Item Name" Link="index"> tag explained above. Note that if DBLink="index" or "admin-index" or "user-index" is used, this <img ...> tag should be placed only in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html" but not other html pages!
Please also note that DBdefault= and DBlink= are optional and can be omitted from this tag. However, if you include these tags, you MUST put DBDefault=... immediately behind the src=..., and DBLink=... immediately behind DBDefault=.... This is usually a rule for POD-specific tags --- Do not use a fancy order of options in the tags! Use the tag exactly as instructed.

How do I let POD dynamically display an http link based on the value of an entry item?
Use <a href="DB Item Name" DBdefault="any default link">whatever</a>. Again, this tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <a href="DB Item Value">whatever</a> (if DB Item Value is empty, POD will use the "any default link" to substitute it). Therefore you can store any http links in the DB and have POD display them. Note that the DBdefault=... in this tag is optional and can be omitted from this tag. However, if you include this tag, you MUST put it immediately behind the href="DB Item Name". Also note that this tag is different from the <!--DBItem="DB Item Name" DBdefault="any default text" Link="www"> tag!

How do I let POD display a sort link that users can click on the link and have the currently-displayed entries resorted?
Use<ahref="DBSort=DB Item Name">whatever</a>. This tag should be put in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html" only. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <a href="DB Sort Link">whatever</a> in which "DB Sort Link" is a dynamically produced link that can re-sort all the currently displayed entries according to this particular DB item. If you put a "*" in front of "DB Item Name" (as "DBSort= *DB Item Name") POD will make a link that sorts DB in descending order instead of the default ascending order. (Please note that users of your DB can toggle the sort order by clicking on the item they just sorted with again, thereby overriding your setting here).

How do I let POD display an index link that links to a single entry?
Use <a href="index">whatever</a> (or "admin-index" or "user-index"). Naturally, this tag should be put in "multi-admin.html" and "multi-user.html" only. When POD see this, it will make a link that links to the individual entry just like in <!--DBItem="DB Item Name" Link="index"> tag (i.e., <a href="index"> is replaced with <a href= "index link produced by POD">whatever</a>).

How do I let POD display a text box in html form and have an item value filled in the box automatically?
Use something like <input type="text" name="DB Item Name" size="20"> This tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <input type="text" name="DB Item Name" value="DB Item Value" size="20">.

How do I let POD display a checkbox in html form which is checked or unchecked based on an item value?
Use <input type="checkbox" name="DB Item Name" value="1">. Again, this tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <input type="checkbox" name="DB Item Name" checked value="1"> or <input type="checkbox" name="DB Item Name" value="1">, depending on whether "DB Item Name" checkbox was checked or not the last time it was modified. Please note that it is recommended that you use "1" as the value for checkbox, this way you can set this entry item size to be 2 and save space (the reason that you need 2 characters to store "1" is that POD uses a special placeholder for any item in the DB, so you should always allocate one more character than what you want for POD's internal usage). Also note: Never set value= "0"! That's because POD thinks of empty item and item that contains "0" as unchecked checkboxes.

How do I let POD display a radio button in html form one of whose buttons is checked based on an item value?

Use <input type="radio" name="Whatever Name" value="DB Item Name"> Again, this tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <input type="radio" name="Whatever Name" checked value="DB Item Name1"> or <input type="radio" name="Whatever Name" value= "DB Item Name2">, provided that"DB Item Name1" button was checked the last time this item was modified. BTW, if you are not familiar with radio buttons, here's a hint: the "Whatever Name" above can be any name you want, but remember, the same group of radio buttons should have the same name!

How do I let POD display a multi-line text box (textarea) in html form and have its content filled in automatically based on item value?
Use something like <textarea rows="3" NAME="DB Item Name" DBdefault="any default text" cols="50"></textarea>. Again, this tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with <textarea rows="3" NAME="DB Item Name" DBdefault="any default text" cols="50">DB Item Value</textarea> (if DB Item Value is empty, POD will use the "any default text" tosubstitute it).Note that the DBdefault=... in this tagis optional and can be omitted from this tag. However, if you include this tag, you MUST put it immediately behind the name= "DB Item Name".

How do I let POD display a drop-down menu in html form and have one option selected automatically based on item value?
Use:
<select name="DB Item Name">
<option value="DB Item Value Choice1">DB Item Value Choice1</option>
<option value="DB Item Value Choice2">DB Item Value Choice2</option>
... ... ... ...
</select>
Again, this tag should be placed only in the entry-display pages. When POD sees this tag, it will replace it with
<select name="DB Item Name">
<option value="DB Item Value Choice1">DB Item Value Choice1</option>
<option value="DB Item Value Choice2" selected>DB Item Value Choice2</option>
... ... ... ...
</select>
provided that DB Item Value Choice2 is the choice selected the last time the item was modified.

A few rules for using POD-specific tags that you should remember
1. While you can usually put any POD-specific tags into any html files described above without hurting the program execution, you'd better put only those that make sense into any particular html file. For example, if you put "" into notfound.html, obviously it doesn't make any sense --- That tag is used to display how many entries were found during the search whereas notfound.html is only displayed when nothing was found. Likewise, any tag with DB Item Name specified in it should be placed only in those pages that can display an entry. In general, you should not put any POD-specific tags in pwd.html, and notfound.html because no entry is actually found or returned or added during the operation, therefore those tags will not result in correct display at all (usually putting in those tags has no adverse effect because they won't display, but do not count on it as some tags may give wrong display).
2. You should always make sure the items you link with "DBLink="index"" do not contain empty values (if they do have empty values, you should provide a DBDefault= "whatever text you want to put in"), or else POD will still try to link them by adding a "_", but it usually does not look good. In most situations it is not a requirement, though.

I want to provide a URL link on my page to display every entry in the database, how do I do it?
Use<ahref="http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/fldb.exe?keyword=&password=searchpassword&act=display&authority=AdminOrUser&DBName=fldb>LinkContent</a>.
Of course, you need to replace the "myserver.com", "fldb", "searchpassword" (if you did not designate a password for search, then you don't have to put &password= searchpassword in the above URL), "AdminOrUser", "LinkContent" with the appropriate value.

I want to provide a URL link on my page to display every entry that contains the word "biology", how do I do it?
Use<ahref="http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/fldb.exe?keyword=biology&password=searchpassword&act=search&search+field=all&sort+option=sortitem&authority=AdminOrUser&DBName=fldb>LinkContent</a>. Again, you need to fill in with the appropriate value.

How to provide other types of URL links?
Here's how you make any kind of new URL links that POD can use:
1. View the html source of any POD-generated html pages and see for yourself how the URL is constructed.
2. View the html source for the html pages of sample files (in the .zip archive) or POD-generated files, if you see any html forms, say, something like below:
<form action="http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/fldb.exe" method="post">
<input type="text" size="9" name="keyword">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="search">
<input type="hidden" name="DBName" value="qna">
<input type="hidden" name= "searchfield" value= "contactname">
<input type="hidden" name="sort option" value="*time stamp">
<input type="submit" value="Search!" name="Submit">
Then you should construct URL likethis:
<ahref="http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/fldb.exe?keyword=&act=search&DBName=qna&search+field=contact+name&sort+option=*time+stamp">LinkContent</a>.
If you fill the word "biology" in the "keyword" item in the html form, then you should replace the "keyword=" above to "keyword=biology".
Html is so simple, all you have to do is watch how others do it and learn.

How do I design the search forms in an html page like "fldb-search-user.html"?
There are 2 rules for the search html form field: 1. The name of the "select" (drop-down menu) must be "search field", meaning you must put <select name="search field"> in the search form. 2. You want to use <option value= "all">all items</option> for searching for all items in an entry. This should also be the default search behavior, even thoughit's not a requirement. You can also say <option value= "DB Item Name"> where "DB Item Name" is the name of an actual item in your DB.
There are 2 rules for sort field: 1. The name of the "select" must be "sort option", meaning you must put <select name="sort option "> in the form. 2. If you want the item be sorted in ascending order, you use <option value= "DB Item Name">; but if you wantit sorted in descending order, you add a '*' in front of DB Item Name like this: <option value= "*DB Item Name">. Replace the "DB Item Name" with the actual name of a DB item of course.

How do I convert DB schema?
Say, your current DB has the following items: "name,email,web site,phone number,time stamp,password" with sizes "20,20,40,25,15,20". You want to change it to "name,phone number,email,status,comment,time stamp,password" with sizes "30,25,20,15,150,15,20". What you want to do is, first backup your old DB (the .txt file) and its configuration .ini file by copying the files to wherever you want. This way if something went wrong (like electricity went out) during DB conversion, you can restore the file by copying old DB and .ini file back. Please note that even if electricity went out, POD should recover and resume the DB conversion operation just fine (but you probably would like to be as safe as possible with important data). After you copied the files, open DBAdmin.html, fill in the DB name (likely "fldb") and password, then in the multi-line text box "Info of the previous entry items" under "Database Entry Info Configuration" section) fill in:
name,20
email,20
web site,40
phone number,25
time stamp,15
password,20
Effectively you're assigning your current DB item names as previous item names, which is truely the case after DB conversion. (of course, an easier way would by simply copy the content that's in the multi-line text box "Info of the current entry items" under "Database Entry Info Configuration" section to the "Info of the previous entry items" box). Then in the "Info of the current entry items" boxk, put the new items names and sizes as the "Names of current entry items" etc. Of course, the data type should be changed to new types too. Data types for the old DB items do not matter, so you can either delete them from the "Info of the previous entry items" box or leave them it, which should not do harm either. At last, check the "Convert to new items next time POD is run?" checkbox. Fill in password at the bottom of configuration page, and press the submit button to submit the new configurations online. Now you're all set. However, please note that after the submission, the DB schema is not changed yet. Only when POD (fldb.exe) is launched next time will your new DB schema be detected and actual conversion take place. Therefore, you should probably want to visit your DB after you finished configuration of the new schema, which will complete the whole conversion process.

How do I set up more than one database with POD?
To do that, you must first register. The evaluation copy of POD does not allow more than one DB running at a time. After registration, to set up another database, just follow the< A href= "Installation.htm"> Installation< /A> procedure and set up the new db exactly as you did for "fldb" with the only exception that you name the newDB to the desired DB name (say, mydb). That means, after installation,there shouldbe a subdirectorynamed "mydb" under cgi-bin directory, and under cgi-bin/mydb, there are files named mydb.ini, mydb.lann, notfound.html, multi-admin.html etc.

Where are my DB data stored?
They are in the .txt file under the subdirectories of cgi-bin. For unregistered version, the file is fldb.txt under cgi-bin/fldb/ directory.

Can I create a DB file (say, fldb.txt) myself?
Never create DB file (the .txt file) yourself. After you configured the .ini file and html interface files, just launch POD through web browser by adding entry to or search the database, POD will find that DB file is missing and will create a new one for you.

Where are my DB configuration stored?
They are in the .ini file under the subdirectories of cgi-bin. For unregistered version, the file is fldb.ini under cgi-bin/fldb/ directory.

What is the use of the .log file under my DB's directory?
They are for POD's internal usage only. Do not modify or delete it!