[Web4lib] loading database descriptions into web page

[Amy Drayer]

Dear Web4Libbers:

You are absolutely correct Chris, thank you. :-)

We've been working on creating information-on-demand, as I like to think of
it, for our patrons.  Currently, it constitutes javascript and a nice
accessible CSS/XHTML combo to "pop-up" more information on a database.  The
script is borrowed from Twin Helix (supernote:
http://www.twinhelix.com/dhtml/supernote/) and can be modified for more
AJAX-y content (which is what we'll be doing).

I am only testing out the basic concept right now, but at the end of August
we'll hopefully be plugging in the content from an XML document.  An example
of the testing is:
http://www.jocobusiness.net/research

And we'll pull content on demand from XML similar to this cute little widget
(check the dropdown):
http://new.jocolibrary.org/default.aspx?id=2120 (please note this is a test
site and the link will change on August 15, 2007)

It's a work in progress, but I hope it helps with ideas. :-)  We'll probably
use something similar with our federated search program too.  I have
concerns using javascript for loading content since people can disable it,
so you may want to consider a server-side script such as PHP or ASP instead.
:-)


-- 
In peace,

Amy M. Drayer
Web Interface Designer
amostrom at gmail.com
http://www.puzumaki.com

On 7/31/07, Christopher Barr <christopher.barr at villanova.edu> wrote:
>
> In response to Cathy:
>
> I would note that "Dynamic" is NOT a marketing tool. Dynamic simply refers
> to pages that are built with "server side scripting".
>
> HTML, DHTML, javascript, and CSS are NOT server side... they are client
> side and are processed by the web browser. For example if you turn
> JavaScript off on your browser, it is a client side change, and you won't
> see any functionality the requires it in your browser. On the other hand
> PHP, Perl, ASP, and ColdFusion are all server side languages. They process
> commands and return HTML to the browser. It happens something like this:
>
> With a normal page: Client requests page.html, page.html is sent to
> persons browser, the browser processes html, css, and javascript and
> displays results.
>
> With a dynamic page: Client request page.php, server processes php
> commands, php might query the database or include another file, results of
> query are sent back to php, php script into html, html is sent to browser,
> browser processes html, css, and javascript and displays results.
>
> Hope that makes sense.
>
> (And for what Sandra wants it is not really the job of the database
> providers. She wants to create her own searchable/sortable database of
> databases.)
>
>
> Best,
> Chris Barr
> Villanova University
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:
> web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of cathy alberts
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 12:32 PM
> To: Sandra Cahillane
> Cc: Web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] loading database descriptions into web page
>
> Sandra,
>
>   You might want to contact UMass Amherst or contact the vendors since
> they are more direct and the one has what you want to implement.
>
>   The concept "dynamic" is a marketing tool.  When You hear or see the
> acronyms DHTML it is compromised of HTML, CSS, and javascript it is the
> server side.
>
>   Cathy
>
>   Sandra Cahillane <scahilla at baypath.edu> wrote:
>
> Hello again,
>
> Thank you all for your support. I really don't know how I've gotten along
> without you.
>
> Here is my latest dilemma. I have someone capable of writing me a script
> that would load database descriptions into a web page for me similar to
> what they have at UMass Amherst
> (
> http://www.library.umass.edu/cgi-bin/aka/databases.cgi?command=viewdesc&id=5e413c58e05b0c653b4c01b7f85cb881
> ).
> That is, you click on an info button on my alpha list of databases and a
> separate page with a description of one specific database is populated.
> The problem is, I have no idea how to create the link that would pull the
> info from the database description pages, I'm assuming that part would be
> fairly simple though. Nor do I know how to format the description page so
> it would work with the script. The person I am working with said to create
> a "dynamic" HTML page, but I'm not sure what that means. These days, I
> though they were all dynamic.
>
> Do I need to create individual pages for each database description? Or is
> their a way to create a page with all the database descriptions and have
> the appropriate data pulled depending on which database you wanted info
> on?
>
> Does anyone have pages/examples/sites they can share with me that I could
> work from?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sandy
>
> Sandy Cahillane
> Systems and Reference Librarian
> Bay Path College
> Hatch Library
> 588 Longmeadow Street
> Longmeadow, MA 01106
> (413) 567-4529 or (413) 565-1376
> fax-(413) 567-8345
>
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>
>
> Cathy Alberts
>
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