[WEB4LIB] RE: Before I recreate...

[Nathan Williams]

That's actually a great use for Javascript.  It sounds like Mike's confusing
authentication with validation.  If your just trying to ensure that the
barcode is of a certain format, javascript would work fine.  Here's a quick
description of that sort of form validation:
http://www.webdeveloper.com/javascript/javascript_form_verification.html
Nathan Williams
North Suburban District Library
Loves Park, IL

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Novak [mailto:prx000 at mail.connect.more.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 3:26 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Before I recreate...


>the proverbial wheel. I'm not a Javascript expert in any way, but a library
>in my system wants to have a barcode validation on a webpage that would act
>as a gateway for a particular web-based database they've developed.

Steve,

What web server are you running?  I may be way off on this, but when I hear
"Javascript" I think client-side processing, which wouldn't be a good idea
for this application as you wouldn't want patrons to be able to view the
code.   I do this sort of thing with VBScript in an ASP page under IIS 4.0,
but any kind of server-side script (e.g. Perl) should be easy to whip up.
For what it's worth, it would also be easy to throw in a check for your
local IP range so in-house users don't need to enter the barcode number.
[These probably aren't the best solutions for something you want to keep
REALLY secure, but it sounds like you just are looking to keep it
pretty-much secure. :) ]

You could even check the check-digit if your barcodes use them.  That gets
kind of confusing to code though; I hacked out a sample page for our 14
digit dynix barcodes (try it at http://www.ucpl.lib.mo.us/checkdigit.asp)
but it's such a convoluted algorithm that I don't know if my script is 100%
accurate...

Mike Novak
Technology Coordinator & Reference Librarian
University City Public Library