GnuCash!

Linux Web Database Scripting Gateways

Once upon a time (circa 1995), this was a clean, well-defined category in itself. Today (circa 2000), after the web explosion, things have gotten murky, mostly because there has been a paradigm shift in thinking about the web. Once upon a time, there was a clean distinction between web authoring tools, Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools, and web-to-database gateways. These days, the edges of these systems have merged and overflowed onto one-another. The paradigm shift is that of "Content Management Systems": systems that allow one to publish web sites, maintain interactive communities, and design interactive, data-driven web sites, all of these backed by a powerful database, usually SQL-based.

The paradigm is continuing to shift. People are realizing that web interfaces alone are not that pretty, and suffer from slow response times; whereas the pretty desktop apps are almost never network-aware. This realization is driving efforts such as the Microsoft .net strategy, and the cross-over can be seen in some of the tools below.

This web page is still organized along the lines of the pre-paradigm-shift way about thinking about the web. Thus, it is inherently incomplete and lop-sided in its treatment. Important systems, such as Zope, the Ars Digita Community System, Slashcode (Slashdot), PHPNuke, and many others are not mentioned, even though they should dominate the discussion of web content management systems. Thus, the web side of this page lists primarily the older systems that focused on SQL-to-web interfaces and web-based scripting languages. I believe this page still provides useful references, but you may want to cast your net in other directions as well, if you are looking for tools to build interactive, database-backed web sites.

See Also:

• Linux Database Management and RAD Tools lists graphical GUI tools for developing database apps and administering databases.
• Linux SQL Programming Interfaces lists ODBC, JDBC and data dictionary API's for SQL databases.
• Linux SQL Databases lists the major commercial and free database systems.
• Linux Non-SQL Databases lists OODBMS, xBase, Pick and other database systems.
• CBBrowne's Relational Database Management System pages.

Web to Database Gateways

Dominating the field these days are scripting languages and full-fledged programming languages that have been tailored for web page creation. These are now referred to as "Content Management Systems"; the market and mindshare leaders are Zope, PHP, and Java.

As a result, the category of "web to database gateways" is rather vestigial, and not really applicable much more in the modern sense. The list is maintained here for historical purposes.

See also:

• A long list of web-database gateways for many operating systems
• Another list of free & commercial web-database gateways

Open Source and Free Web Interfaces

PHP

The PHP (formerly PHP/FI) server-side html-embedded scripting language is wildly popular on the net. More popular than Microsoft's Active Server pages, or Java's JSP's, it is the market leader for creating interactive web sites. The language provides bindings to virtually all SQL databases: mSQL, mysql, Postgres, SOLID, Interbase, Adabas, Sybase, Oracle, DBM and more. Runs on Linux, W95 and NT.

• makeform.pl is a Perl script that inputs a mysqldump and outputs a PHP form with all methods to add, delete, modify the fields.
• PHPGem is a PHP script which accelerates the creation of PHP scripts for working with databases. You input a description of table columns, and PHPGem outputs another PHP-script which provides the web interface to work with the tables (view/add/edit/delete/duplicate entries and search). PHPGem works with multi-level nested tables, allows different levels of access for each table and field, and supports images.

Roxen

See the Roxen listing below ... portions of Roxen are non-commercial, GPL'ed.

ePerl

ePerl is tool to embed Perl directly into web pages. Unlike cgi-bins written in perl, embedding reverses the relationship between the HTML and the interpreter, giving the HTML the driver's seat in the page description. The embedding markup is similar to PHP (described below) but rather than being a perl look-alike, it's the real thing: it fires up the Perl interpreter to do the work. This means that the full set of Perl modules, including all the modules for database access, are available to the programmer. Now available as a mod_eperl module for Apache.

AOLServer

AOLServer is a full-fledged, high-performance web server. It sports ADP -- AOL Dynamic Pages, which allow Tcl scripts to be embedded into HTML pages. Provides interfaces to SOLID, and a programming API for adding other databases.

• User contributed Tcl Tools for AOLServer
• Note also that Tcl/Tk seems to be moving uptown ... see SunScript.

EARP

The Easily Adjustable Response Program (EARP v2.0) is a cute visual design system for creating web-to-SQL interfaces. The author claims that EARP2 is being created on Linux, although the screen shots bear a very distinct Windows Logo. Fascinating!

dbengine

The dbengine SQL to WWW interface. Rather than requiring you to learn a 4GL or other custom language, dbengine only requires that you describe your tables and fields. It then automatically creates the HTML needed to query the database. For those who need more power & function, dbengine uses perl as it's native "4GL". Currently runs only on Postgres.

AppGen

The AppGen SQL schema to cgi-bin application generator. AppGen is a 4GL (4th Generation Language) for producing WWW based applications. Includes the dbf2sql utility for converting dBase III compatible files to SQL. Currently runs only on Postgres.

dbedit

dbedit is a schema-based application generator, where the schema is the HTML form itself. dbedit is a set of perl scripts that analyze an HTML form to produce a cgi-wrapper for querying and displaying the resulting data. Currently only supports /rdb.

Merle/MUMPS

Merle/MUMPS is a scripting language designed for interfacing medical records to web pages.

WDB

The WDB Web Database Interface. An interpreter creates both the HTML forms, and the SQL statements to be executed, from a set of form definition files. One of the early web-database gateways. Supports Sybase, Informix, mSQL, PostgresSQL.

• Live demos include Hubble Space Telescope exposures and the list of reservations for the ESO Telescope
• The WDB-to-Postgres95 port of WDB.

Web/Genera

The Web/Genera Web-to-Sybase interface. Uses a schema language that is interpreted to create both the HTML and the SQL queries on the fly.

GSQL

The GSQL Mosaic-SQL gateway is very old (1993) and I believe it is the first web-SQL gateway ever. Uses a schema language that is interpreted to create both the HTML and the SQL queries on the fly. At one point, very popular & dominated the very very first interactive web sites ever (circa 1993/1994) .

SQLGate

SQLGate Hypertext with Embedded SQL is a server-side html-embedded scripting language allowing SQL statements to be inserted into HTML. The original author, Fritz Barnes, has contacted me to state that SQLGate is no longer maintained.

Commercial Web Database Gateways & Interfaces

One exception is WebKit, which instead extends a 4GL so that web cgi-bins can be more easily created in the 4GL.

Escapade (New Listing!)

Escapade is a simple web scripting language. Commercial license, free evaluation. Beta (version 0.2). Provides support for MySQL only.

Roxen Challanger

The Roxen Challenger recently won a Best of Comdex award for its features & functions. At its core, its a secure (SSL-enabled) web server, with significant infrastructure to provide gateway capabilities. The RXML markup language provides strong control over document generation on the server side. The core Pike module supports connectivity to a variety of SQL databases. The core is (L??)GPL'ed, some modules are available only as commercial add-ons.

• Pike documentation (hard to find from main Roxen web site).
• The Roxen Database API Pro is a commercial add-ons supporting additional function.
• Roxen Module Source is a repository of add-ons and other Roxen goodies.
• Mailing List Archives

Texis Wegbscript

Texis WebScript / Vortex from Thunderstone is a server-side html-embedded scripting language. Supports Thunderstone's Texis SQL database. As one of many demos they have indexed RedHat's man pages & web site

Talentsoft Web+

Talentsoft offers Web+ -- a server-side, html-embedded scripting language.

NeoWebScript

NeoWebScript from NeoSoft is a server-side, html-embedded scripting language. Implemented as a module for the Apache web server. allowing Tcl/Tk top be embedded in web pages. Free for non-commercial and certain commercial use. Note also that Tcl/Tk seems to be moving uptown ... see SunScript.

Heitml Extended Interactive HTML

Heitml Extended Interactive HTML (European site) (US site) is a server-side, html-embedded scripting language. Supports sessions (server-side state). Support for Yard, mSQL, MySQL, Postgres95, ODBC. Runs on multiple Unix's, NT, W95. Shareware, free for non-commercial use, license required for commercial use.

HTMLscript

HTMLscript is a server-side, html-embedded scripting language.

SQLWeb

SQLWeb from JustLogic -- a server-side, html-embedded scripting language. Don't confuse with other products called "WebSQL" or "SQLWeb" (which see above & below).

SQLweb

Applied Information Technologies offers SQLweb -- a server-side, html-embedded scripting language. Don't confuse with other products called "WebSQL" or "SQLWeb" (which see above & below).

WebSQL

YARD offers a WebSQL Demo Not sure what this is. Don't confuse with other products called "WebSQL" or "SQLWeb" (which see above & below).

DataWEB

DataWEB from Empress -- a server-side, html-embedded scripting language.

Empress has a freeware copy of an earlier version of the above. Try the following links:

• Empress Web HTML Toolkit.
• EmpHTML Module
• EmpHTML Module
• Differences Between Professional Version 2.0 and Freeware Version 1.1

WebKit

WebKit from WorkGroup Solutions provides a set of extensions to the Clipper language to allow the easy development of cgi-bins within the Clipper, dBase, FlagShip environment.

W3-Gateway

W3-Gateway f�r LNX-DBMS Diese Software erm�glicht die direkte Einbettung von beliebigen LNX SQL Statements in HTML Dokumente. Die Inhalte der HTML Seiten �ndern sich dynamisch, d.h. �nderungen am DBMS werden sofort sichtbar im HTML Dokument.

WWW-Anbindung F�r das professionelle Datenbank-Managementsystem LNX - es liegt seit der Version 4.2 unseren Linux-Paketen bei - gibt es jetzt eine komfortable HTML/WWW-Schnittstelle.

Sie erm�glicht es, �ber das WWW und HTML-Seiten beliebige SQL-Befehle auszuf�hren. Auch �nderungen der Datenbankinhalte (z.B. Preislisten) lassen sich direkt und automatisch ins HTML-Dokument �bernehmen. Die Inhalte der HTML-Dokumente �ndern sich sozusagen dynamisch - eine ideale L�sung, wenn per Internet abgefragte Daten immer aktuell sein m�ssen.