A Platform Independent Web-Based Data Managementn System For Random Access File

With the advent of the Web, the Internet has evolved into a user-friendly medium capable of high speed, on demand information delivery. Putting data onto the World Wide Web in the form of a fully accessible, searchable database can open up a wide variety of possibilities for teaching, learning and research. There are many different types of web-based database management system (DBMS), e.g., Oracle, Informix/Illustra, IBM DB2, Object Design, ranging from small systems that run on personal computers to huge systems that run on mainframes. However, these systems have limitations such as being platform dependent, not portable and expensive. This thesis describes the development of WebDB, a platform independent webbased data management system using Java servIets and random access files to address the problems. It is developed in order to provide the management functions to WebEd2000's database. WebEd2000 is a working prototype of Web-based distance learning system developed at the Broadband and ATM Research Group, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). It enables delivering conventional lecture notes over the Web and providing various tools to help in managing and maintaining course materials in a server. The WebDB approach is for the ease of the centralized management of database administrator over the WebEd2000 users and maintains the database. It also enables instructors to access to their database and update it when necessary. Instead of WebEd2000 database, the system allows its users to put another database on the server. WebDB is mainly developed using the combination of Java servlets and JavaScript technologies. The server-side servlets are used to handle the requests from client and the responses from server. The random access file served as database repository in the database server where all the data is stored. The client-side JavaScript is used to enable DHTML features and perform less-security-concern processes in order to reduce the workload of the web-server. Lastly, WebEd can be easily set up and deployed in any platform and web-servers with minimal modifications. Portability is achieved by utilizing Java technology for the system applications and random access file as the data repository.

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