cgi script
cgi script is a software application that
needs a web server to function --- it takes input from web server (the input is
likely coming from a client of the server, maybe a user's web browser),
processes the data and outputs result back to web server, which then sends the
result to end user's web browser for display. POD requires that you have access
to a webserver which runs on Windows95/98/NT4/2000 and supports cgi. cgi stands
for Common Gateway Interface. It's a standard to be used for executable files to
communicate with web servers. You can get some introduction from NCSA's
site.
SQL
A programming language used in relational database
creation and operation. Most of the popular DB
softwares use it.
Oracle
A trademark for Oracle
Corporation. Oracle database is their flagship product that practically dominates
the internet database market. POD has nothing to do with
Oracle though.
DBA Database administrator
The very expensive
computer specialists who take care of your DB, but they usually have outstanding
expertise and heavy responsibility to justify their sky-high sallaries.
zip file
zip file (or zip archive) is a file compressed
with zip format. If you do not have a software to compress to or decompress from
zip files, go to www.winzip.com to get one.
They have the best zip software IMO.
Schema
It specifies the data structure of the DB.
In POD's case, it's about the length, sequence, and total number
etc. of DB entry items.
csv
comma separated value. This is
a special text file format in which each line represent an entry, and all data
items in that entry are separated by a comma (","). Many DB programs support
exporting the data files to csv format. POD supports importing from and
exporting to csv files. The "source.txt" file in this package demonstrate what
csv file looks like. Usually the extension of the file is .csv, but with .txt it
is still usable and recognizable by POD too. Please note that in unregistered
version of POD, importing from csv files is not supported.
POD
Personal Online Database. POD contains two programs,
fldb.exe which is the main database script that lets users access DB entry
information, while another program, fldbconf.exe is specifically used for
configuration of POD DBs. In this documentation when POD is mentioned, it
is usually referring to fldb.exe; fldbconf.exe is used for Administration of POD
. Occasionally POD is used to refer to the whole
software package that contains many files.
POD-specific tags
These are a set of html-like tags
that are created for POD. They all take the form of ordinary html tags (e.g.,
<a href="DB Item Name">, you need to substitute the "DB Item Name" with a
real DB Item Name you assigned, and POD will provide the data in here with
hypertext link to the data itself) or html comment style (e.g.,
<!--DBItem="DB Item Name" Link="email">, again, you need to substitute the
"DB Item Name" with a real DB Item Name you assigned, and POD will provide the
data in here with email link to the data itself). The details of these tags are
described here.
cgi-bin
A special directory on your web server that usually allows "execute" and/or "script"
access, but disallows "read" access. With such settings, a cgi script may work
with the web server to display dynamically-generated web pages to end users using
the data users sent to it. One web server may have many cgi-bin
directories to many users. You should contact your web server administrator for permission to
use cgi script in a cgi-bin directory, and where that cgi-bin directory is.
You can FTP the files to the cgi-bin directory of the web server (FTP
stands for file transfer protocol. There are a million FTP client applications on the
web, you can go to download.com and search for FTP and find one
that is good for your usage). Please note that you should confirm with
your web server administrator that they did disallow "read" access to your cgi-bin directory! That
is very important to the security of your DB files.
item
Each POD DB entry is composed of
many items, which is simply another name for database fields. For
example, if you're using an addressbook, your DB entries may contain items like
"name", "phone number", "e-mail address", etc.
Entry
Each POD DB is composed of many entries. Each line in the text-based
DB file (e.g., fldb.txt) is an entry, which is simply another name for database
record. Each entry is a collection of many items (fields) and stores the
information for a DB record.
DB html interface
files
These include DBName-add.html, DBName-search-admin.html,
DBName-search-user.html, NotFound.html, InfoNeed.html, opcomplete.html,
PWD.html, multi-admin.html, sing-admin.html, multi-user.html, and
sing-user.html. The "DBName" here may be
fldb, gbook, lib, or
prod, and you can rename the
first three files (NOT the latter 8 html files!). All these files are compressed into
the fldb.zip, gbook.zip, etc. The first three files can be put anywhere on the server
(better not be cgi-bin though), but the latter 8 files has to
be put in a subdirectory (must be "fldb" in unregistered version) under your cgi-bin
directory.
entry-display pages
These pages are
capable of displaying entries in a DB correctly. They
are:
multi-admin.html, multi-user.html, sing-admin.html, sing-user.html,
opcomplete.html.
Paypal Online Payment Service
Paypal is an online
service that enables you send or receive online payments internationally. You
need to sign on for the service at their web site (www.paypal.com). If you are a non-U.S. (international) user,
your payment to me or others may be charged a fee. However, if
you are an international user, paypal can also save you a lot of trouble
(you don't have to do the currency exchange and wire transfer to U.S. bank,
etc).