Introduction

iveWire lets you create the next generation of client-server applications that run over the Internet. The applications you can build range from internal corporate information-sharing to mass-market electronic transactions and commerce.

What you should already know

This book assumes you have some basic background, including

System requirements

LiveWire runs on Windows NT and Unix workstations (see release notes for specific Unix platform support). You must have a Netscape HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) server running on the workstation to run LiveWire applications.

A version of LiveWire for the Macintosh is also available. Because there is no Netscape server for the MacOS, you cannot run applications. However, you can use Site Manager and you can use the LiveWire compiler to create applications to be run on another platform with a Netscape server.

What is LiveWire?

LiveWire is an online development environment for Web site management and client-server application development. It uses JavaScript, a scripting language for creating server-based programs.

LiveWire applications play the same role as CGI programs for providing interactive World Wide Web pages. Unlike CGI programs, however, LiveWire applications are closely integrated with the HTML pages that control them.

LiveWire has three major components: Site Manager and LiveWire compiler, the LiveWire server extension, and Netscape Navigator Gold. LiveWire runs in concert with Netscape servers and is packaged both separately and together with a server. LiveWire Pro adds a SQL database and report generator.

Site Manager and LiveWire compiler

Site Manager is the main graphical interface for LiveWire application developers and Web masters. Site Manager provides

For more information on Site Manager, see Chapter 2, "Creating and managing web sites".

With the LiveWire compiler you can create LiveWire applications that have JavaScript statements embedded in HTML. You can compile applications using the Site Manager's graphical interface or with a command-line interface. For more information on building applications, see Chapter 3, "Developing Applications".

LiveWire server extension

The LiveWire server extension works in concert with a Netscape server to run applications, creating interactive Web pages. The LiveWire server extension is built into Netscape version 2.0 servers.

The LiveWire server extension provides

For more information on using the LiveWire server extension, see Chapter 3, "Developing Applications".

Navigator Gold

Navigator Gold is an edition of Netscape Navigator that provides a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") interface for creating and editing HTML pages, including the ability to edit JavaScript statements embedded in HTML.

For more information on using Navigator Gold to create and edit Web pages, see the Navigator Gold Authoring Guide.

LiveWire Pro

LiveWire Pro adds two components to the basic LiveWire set: a Structured Query Language (SQL) database server and Crystal Reports report generator. With the database server you can create and run database applications if you do not already have a database. Crystal Reports lets you generate HTML reports from your database. These two components have their own documentation.

Document conventions

LiveWire runs on Unix, Windows NT, and Macintosh operating systems; the information here applies to all versions. File and directory paths are given in Windows format (with backslashes separating directory names). For Unix versions, the directory paths are the same, except slashes instead of backslashes separate directories.

This book uses URLs of the form

http://server.domain/path/file.html
In these URLs, server represents the name of the server on which you are running LiveWire, such as "research1" or "www," and domain represents your Internet domain name, such as "netscape.com" or "uiuc.edu." You might not need to specify your domain name when the client itself is within the domain, but you should use your domain name for pages visible outside your domain. In general, items in italics in URLs are variables, and items in normal Courier font are literals.

This book uses the following typographical conventions: