NPAC Focused Effort Proposal for PET

Interfacing Databases and the Web: Management of Large WWW Sites Using Commercial Database Technology

Project Description and Value to PET

This project couples commercial relational database (RDBMS) technology with the world-wide web to make it easier to effectively the large amounts of diverse information which may be presented on the WWW site of a large organization such as the CEWES MSRC. There are three basic components of the project.

  1. Integration of existing databases with the WWW in order to be able to present data obtained by querying the database, insuring that the WWW site always reflects the most current information available in the database.
  2. Use of an RDBMS to "back-end" the WWW site, holding all web pages which do not originate from the aforementioned databases or other specialized systems, as well as "metadata" about the web pages, including creator, date of last update, expiration date of information, review status for public release, etc.
  3. A suite of tools to facilitate management of the WWW site, taking advantage of the RDBMS and the metadata it holds. Capabilities will include summary information about the structure and size of the site, identification of "dead" hyperlinks and "orphaned" web pages as well as outdated information.

The system will support multiple levels of access control and the ability to "stage" information into the production part of the service to accomodate review procedures and ease of development. Detailed design requirements, following this basic model will be developed in cooperation with designated CEWES staff at the beginning of this project.

Because we anticipate that the basic techniques of interfacing commercial database systems to the WWW can be used elsewhere in CEWES and the PET program, we also offer a training course on this topic.

Deliverables