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dbQwikSite Help
HelpAndManual_unregistered_evaluation_copy
dbQwikSite
User Manual
by TheDevShop Ltd.
dbQwikSite is a program that generate data driven web sites
based on database tables and feilds.
This manual covers a number of topics to assist you in
learning the software and in understanding the features
available to you in building a web site. The manual is bloken
into chapters, you need not read all chapters. You can use
this manual as a reference manaual referring just to the
chapters and topics you are seeking additional information
on.
HelpAndManual_unregistered_evaluation_copy
All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the
written permission of the publisher.
Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the
respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document
or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be
liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or
indirectly by this document.
Printed: May 2007 in Thailand
dbQwikSite Help
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Publisher
Special thanks to:
James Hein for his editorial skills. Molly for captuing all the new
features to add with each release of software. To the development
team for the patience in explaining to the authors, the program
functonality. To Gerald Enright for his guidance and help in
creating this manual. To Youme who sacrificed valueable time with
Gerald to get the work completed.
Managing Editor
Technical Editors
Cover Designer
TheDevShop Ltd.
Gerald Enright
James Hein
Pornpahn Henpraset
Supida Jujoi
Production
Gerald Enright
Team Coordinator
Gerald Enright
HelpAndManual_unregistered_evaluation_copy
dbQwikSite Help I
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Part I Getting Started With dbQwikSite
3
................................................................................................................................... 3 1 About dbQwikSite
................................................................................................................................... 4 2 dbQwikSite - Editions
................................................................................................................................... 5 3 Installing dbQwikSite
................................................................................................................................... 5 4 Activating Your Copy of dbQwikSite
................................................................................................................................... 7 5 Quick Start
................................................................................................................................... 17 6 Windows Vista Support
................................................................................................................................... 20 7 LiveUpdates
Part II Program Features
23
................................................................................................................................... 23 1 Highlight Features in this Release
................................................................................................................................... 24 2 dbQwikSite - Editions
................................................................................................................................... 26 3 Edition Feature Matrix
................................................................................................................................... 26 4 Features
................................................................................................................................... 28 5 Previous Versions
.......................................................................................................................................................... 28 New in dbQwikSite 5.2
.......................................................................................................................................................... 29 New in dbQwikSite 5.1
.......................................................................................................................................................... 30 New in dbQwikSite 5.0
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33 New in dbQwikSite 4.2
.......................................................................................................................................................... 34 New in dbQwikSite 4.1
.......................................................................................................................................................... 37 New In dbQwikSite 4.0
Part III An Introduction to Database Web Sites
39
................................................................................................................................... 39 1 Elements of a Database Web Site
.......................................................................................................................................................... 40 Hosts Operating Systems
.......................................................................................................................................................... 41 Web Servers
.......................................................................................................................................................... 41 Scripting Languages
.......................................................................................................................................................... 42 Database (Your)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 42 Database Manager
.......................................................................................................................................................... 43 Database Connection
.......................................................................................................................................................... 44 How The Parts Fit Together
Part IV Working with Databases
47
................................................................................................................................... 47 1 Changing Table Structures
.......................................................................................................................................................... 47 The Universal Table Editor
.......................................................................................................................................................... 48 Adding Columns
.......................................................................................................................................................... 49 Changing Columns
.......................................................................................................................................................... 50 Deleting Columns
.......................................................................................................................................................... 51 Changing Primary Keys
................................................................................................................................... 53 2 Using Existing Databases
.......................................................................................................................................................... 53 Creating Connections
II Contents
II
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
......................................................................................................................................................... 54 Connection Wizard
......................................................................................................................................................... 56 ODBC Connections
......................................................................................................................................................... 59 Managing ADO Connections
......................................................................................................................................................... 60 Creating ADO Connections
......................................................................................................................................................... 62 Excel as a Datasource
.......................................................................................................................................................... 62 Connecting to MySQL Databases
......................................................................................................................................................... 63 mySQL Essentials
......................................................................................................................................................... 63 myODBC for MySQL
......................................................................................................................................................... 66 Importing MySQL Scripts
......................................................................................................................................................... 68 Publishing to mySQL
......................................................................................................................................................... 69 Installing and configuring PHP with MySQL
................................................................................................................................... 70 3 Creating a Database
.......................................................................................................................................................... 71 Database Wizard
.......................................................................................................................................................... 75 Creating Tables From Web Forms
.......................................................................................................................................................... 78 Importing MySQL Script
................................................................................................................................... 80 4 Working with Database Records
.......................................................................................................................................................... 80 The Visual Query Builder
.......................................................................................................................................................... 81 How to Build a Query
.......................................................................................................................................................... 82 Adding Tables to Query
.......................................................................................................................................................... 82 Selecting Fields for your Query
.......................................................................................................................................................... 83 Joining Tables
.......................................................................................................................................................... 85 Filtering Records
.......................................................................................................................................................... 86 Sorting Data
.......................................................................................................................................................... 87 Eliminating Duplicate Records
.......................................................................................................................................................... 88 View SQL
.......................................................................................................................................................... 88 Viewing Selected Data
.......................................................................................................................................................... 88 Customizing the Query
................................................................................................................................... 89 5 Database Tips
................................................................................................................................... 89 6 Moving Your Data to Your Server
Part V Working with Projects and Files
92
................................................................................................................................... 92 1 What is a Project
................................................................................................................................... 92 2 Create a Project
................................................................................................................................... 93 3 New Database Project
................................................................................................................................... 98 4 Backing Up and Restoring Projects
................................................................................................................................... 99 5 Saving Your Project
................................................................................................................................... 99 6 Generating Web Pages
................................................................................................................................... 100 7 Converting Projects from Previous Versions
................................................................................................................................... 100 8 The Sample Projects
................................................................................................................................... 101 9 Using Multiple Projects for one site
................................................................................................................................... 102 10 Supporting Files
.......................................................................................................................................................... 102 Localization Files
.......................................................................................................................................................... 102 CSS Files
.......................................................................................................................................................... 103 Page Group Exports
.......................................................................................................................................................... 103 Keeping Images
Part VI Working with the Designer
107
................................................................................................................................... 107 1 The Explorer
dbQwikSite Help III
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
................................................................................................................................... 109 2 The Design Layout Area
................................................................................................................................... 109 3 Refreshing the Preview
................................................................................................................................... 110 4 Page Groups
................................................................................................................................... 111 5 Creating Page Groups
................................................................................................................................... 112 6 Page Group Wizard
................................................................................................................................... 113 7 dbQwikSite Page Types
................................................................................................................................... 114 8 Showing and Hiding Pages
................................................................................................................................... 115 9 Toolbars
................................................................................................................................... 117 10 Page Settings Navigator
................................................................................................................................... 118 11 Getting Things Done with Wizards
................................................................................................................................... 119 12 Project Wizard
................................................................................................................................... 126 13 Gen Genie
................................................................................................................................... 129 14 Item Multi Editor
................................................................................................................................... 130 15 Data Field Multi Editor
................................................................................................................................... 131 16 Project Settings in Global Group
................................................................................................................................... 135 17 Derived Fields
................................................................................................................................... 137 18 Site Navigation
.......................................................................................................................................................... 137 Site Menus
.......................................................................................................................................................... 139 Button Navigation
................................................................................................................................... 141 19 Saving Your Web Pages
................................................................................................................................... 141 20 Internal HTML Editor
................................................................................................................................... 144 21 External HTML Editor Setup
................................................................................................................................... 145 22 Importing HTML
................................................................................................................................... 146 23 Service Manager
................................................................................................................................... 147 24 How to Get dbQwikStart Templates
Part VII Testing on Your PC
149
................................................................................................................................... 149 1 Requirements for PC Testing
................................................................................................................................... 154 2 Previewing in Web Browser
Part VIII Common Page Options
157
................................................................................................................................... 157 1 General Properties
................................................................................................................................... 158 2 Headers & Footers
................................................................................................................................... 158 3 Color Themes and Style Sheets
................................................................................................................................... 159 4 Messages
................................................................................................................................... 160 5 Record Layouts
................................................................................................................................... 161 6 Return Flow Processing
................................................................................................................................... 162 7 Security Level
Part IX Display and Search Pages
164
................................................................................................................................... 164 1 Data List Page
IV Contents
IV
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
................................................................................................................................... 165 2 Data List Page Options
................................................................................................................................... 168 3 Find Page (Search)
................................................................................................................................... 169 4 Search Options
................................................................................................................................... 177 5 Control Panel Pages
................................................................................................................................... 178 6 Record View Page (More Page)
................................................................................................................................... 179 7 Details Page (of master / detail)
................................................................................................................................... 180 8 HTML Pages
Part X Working with Web Page Appearance
183
................................................................................................................................... 183 1 General
.......................................................................................................................................................... 183 Formatting Dates
.......................................................................................................................................................... 184 General
.......................................................................................................................................................... 184 Page Title
.......................................................................................................................................................... 185 Page Header
.......................................................................................................................................................... 187 Page Footer
.......................................................................................................................................................... 189 Page Navigators
.......................................................................................................................................................... 189 Auto Titles
.......................................................................................................................................................... 190 Background Images
.......................................................................................................................................................... 191 Choosing Font Style
.......................................................................................................................................................... 192 Importing CSS files
.......................................................................................................................................................... 192 Adding Text to Column Value
.......................................................................................................................................................... 194 Formatting Cells and Borders
.......................................................................................................................................................... 194 Using dbQwikStart Templates
.......................................................................................................................................................... 196 Index Frame
.......................................................................................................................................................... 197 Page Multicolumn Layout
................................................................................................................................... 198 2 Color Schemes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 198 Selecting Color Schemes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 200 Customizing Color Schemes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 202 Saving Color Schemes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 202 Hover Row Color
.......................................................................................................................................................... 204 CSS and Color Themes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 205 Layout Designer
................................................................................................................................... 207 3 Layouts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 207 Layout Designer
.......................................................................................................................................................... 209 Choosing a Page Layout
.......................................................................................................................................................... 211 Choosing Catalog Layout
.......................................................................................................................................................... 212 Page Multi-column Layout
.......................................................................................................................................................... 212 Splitting Records into Pages
.......................................................................................................................................................... 213 Placing Records Side by Side
.......................................................................................................................................................... 213 Selecting Search Fields Layouts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 214 Creating Your Own Layout Styles
.......................................................................................................................................................... 216 Controlling Records per Row
................................................................................................................................... 216 4 Working with Page Items
.......................................................................................................................................................... 217 Sequencing Page Items
.......................................................................................................................................................... 217 Adding a Currency Symbol
.......................................................................................................................................................... 219 Formatting Dates
.......................................................................................................................................................... 220 Static Drop Down Lists
.......................................................................................................................................................... 222 Dynamic Drop Down Lists
.......................................................................................................................................................... 224 Radio Buttons from Data Values
.......................................................................................................................................................... 226 Check Boxes from Data Values
dbQwikSite Help V
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
.......................................................................................................................................................... 228 Combining Values In a Page Item
.......................................................................................................................................................... 230 Formatting Data Values
.......................................................................................................................................................... 231 Replacing Fields with Text
.......................................................................................................................................................... 235 Replacing Fields With Icons
.......................................................................................................................................................... 236 Renaming Page Item Headings
.......................................................................................................................................................... 238 Replacing Fields with Pictures
.......................................................................................................................................................... 241 Controlling Image Display Size
Part XI Data Entry Pages
243
................................................................................................................................... 243 1 Add a Record Page
................................................................................................................................... 243 2 Update a Record Page
................................................................................................................................... 245 3 Delete a Record Page
................................................................................................................................... 246 4 Copy a Record Page
................................................................................................................................... 247 5 Bulk Import Page
Part XII Page Controls and Linking
250
................................................................................................................................... 250 1 Page Item Control Settings
................................................................................................................................... 251 2 Linking to Scripts
................................................................................................................................... 252 3 Control Panel Pages
................................................................................................................................... 253 4 Static Drop Down Lists
................................................................................................................................... 255 5 Dynamic Drop Down Lists
................................................................................................................................... 258 6 Radio Buttons from Data Values
................................................................................................................................... 259 7 Linked Drop Down Lists
................................................................................................................................... 262 8 Adding Dynamic Hyperlinks
................................................................................................................................... 264 9 Adding Static Hyperlinks
................................................................................................................................... 266 10 Adding a Date Picker
................................................................................................................................... 269 11 Adding Export Links to Pages
................................................................................................................................... 270 12 Adding Links to Scripts
................................................................................................................................... 271 13 Data Validation
................................................................................................................................... 274 14 File Uploading
................................................................................................................................... 276 15 Customizing Page Flows
................................................................................................................................... 278 16 Making a Pick List
................................................................................................................................... 280 17 Linking Pick Lists Together
................................................................................................................................... 280 18 About Validation Scripts
................................................................................................................................... 281 19 Customizing Validation Scripts
................................................................................................................................... 283 20 Separating Pages Into Categories
Part XIII Securing Your Web Site
286
................................................................................................................................... 286 1 Security Models
................................................................................................................................... 287 2 Security Wizard
................................................................................................................................... 289 3 Securing a Single Page
................................................................................................................................... 290 4 Security Levels
VI Contents
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2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
................................................................................................................................... 290 5 Login Pages
................................................................................................................................... 291 6 Static vs Table Security
................................................................................................................................... 292 7 Global Security
................................................................................................................................... 292 8 Overriding Global Security
................................................................................................................................... 292 9 User Level Data Filtering
................................................................................................................................... 293 10 User Accounts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 293 User Identification and Authentication
.......................................................................................................................................................... 295 Creating Static User Accounts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 296 Creating Database User Accounts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 297 Using Database User Accounts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 298 Maintaining User Accounts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 300 Password Retrieval
......................................................................................................................................................... 301 Shopping Cart: Check Out Page
Part XIV E-Commerce Pages
304
................................................................................................................................... 304 1 ECommerce Enhancements
................................................................................................................................... 308 2 Ecommerce Process Overview
................................................................................................................................... 309 3 Shopping Cart : View Page
................................................................................................................................... 311 4 How to Enable On-Line Shopping
................................................................................................................................... 311 5 Shopping Cart
.......................................................................................................................................................... 312 Enabling a Shopping Cart
.......................................................................................................................................................... 313 Using a Third Party Shopping Cart
.......................................................................................................................................................... 315 Enabling a Check Out Page
.......................................................................................................................................................... 316 How to Enable On-Line Shopping
................................................................................................................................... 317 6 Ecommerce Wizard
Part XV Project Reports
326
Part XVI E-mail From Your Site
328
................................................................................................................................... 328 1 Sending an E-mail
................................................................................................................................... 328 2 E-mail Results Dialog Page
................................................................................................................................... 329 3 E-mail Saving to Database
................................................................................................................................... 331 4 E-mail Data Page and Search Results
................................................................................................................................... 333 5 E-mail a Record Page
Part XVII Moving Your Site to a Host Server
337
................................................................................................................................... 337 1 Deploy Wizard
................................................................................................................................... 338 2 dbQwikSite Web Checker pages
................................................................................................................................... 339 3 Publishing Your Web Pages
................................................................................................................................... 343 4 Deploying Pages
................................................................................................................................... 346 5 Customizing ASP and PHP Generated Pages
................................................................................................................................... 347 6 Moving Files with FTP
................................................................................................................................... 347 7 Setting Server Details
................................................................................................................................... 349 8 Integrating dbQwikPages to Existing Sites
dbQwikSite Help VII
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
................................................................................................................................... 349 9 Customizing Session Variables
................................................................................................................................... 350 10 Moving Your Database to a Server
................................................................................................................................... 351 11 Environment Compatibility Chart
................................................................................................................................... 351 12 Cross Platform Compatability Guide
Part XVIII Localizing Your Web Pages
355
................................................................................................................................... 356 1 Tasks for Localizing
................................................................................................................................... 359 2 Using a Language File
................................................................................................................................... 359 3 Localizing Data Content
Part XIX Extending dbQwikSite
361
................................................................................................................................... 361 1 Project XML Repository
................................................................................................................................... 361 2 Creating Integrated Reports
Part XX About TheDevShop
364
................................................................................................................................... 364 1 About TheDevShop
................................................................................................................................... 364
2 How to Get Professional Services from dbQwikSite Design
Factory
................................................................................................................................... 365 3 Getting Support
Index 366
Foreword
This maual is a user reference
manual for dbQwikSite. It is best
used for reference, rather than a
source of interesting reading...
then again if you suffer from
imsomia, reading as a novel may
help.
1 Foreword
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
HelpAndManual_unregistered_evaluation_copy
Part
I
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 3
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
1 Getting Started With dbQwikSite
Welcome to dbQwikSite. With dbQwikSite you can create database web sites with no
special technical expertise or programming skills.
This section covers basic information about the program installation and how to get
started.
1.1 About dbQwikSite
dbQwikSite allows you to create dynamic, database web sites, without having to write a
single line of web script , HTML or SQL code.
With dbQwikSite you can build all kinds of interactive web sites ranging from simple
publication of a database table, to on-line data entry and collection, to full scale E-
Commerce web stores complete with payment processing.
dbQwikSite is simple to use and has proven useful for both novices and professionals
creating websites. Read Quick Start to learn how you can easily produce web
applications.
Beneath the clear and intuitive interface, you will find a feature rich tool, with a wealth of
functions and options. See Features to learn more about the full potential of dbQwikSite.
dbQwikSite comes with Sample Projects for you to try and which will help you to learn by
example.
dbQwikSite Help 4
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
dbQwikSite is produced by TheDevShop Ltd.
For more information and registration go to the dbQwikSite home page www.dbQwikSite.
com
1.2 dbQwikSite - Editions
There are 6 Editions of dbQwikSite:
Personal Edition (PE):
Personal Edition can do more than before, you can view all page types and create
multiple group projects limited to a total of 25 pages. PE is a single scripting language
edition you can activate (PHP, ASP, or ASP.net) via the web, no personal information is
required for the activation process, however you can optionally register for support if you
wish. PE adds "branding" banners to your pages at is has in the past. The code
generation speed in PE is limited.
Publisher (Pub)
Publisher is a "display" edition. This means it will create display and search pages, but
no data management pages or on-line forms. If you only need to display your data
online publisher offers a cost effective solution. Publisher is a single language edition
and you must select the scripting language at time of purchase. Publisher is limited to
50 pages per project.
Express Edition(XE)
Express is a "lite" version of PRO. It features all the functionality of PRO, except that it is
limited to a single scripting language and 100 pages per project.
Professional (Pro):
Pro remains our powerhouse edition with all features except the e-commerce extensions.
Pro generates all script languages and has no page limits.
E-Commerce (Ecom):
Ecommerce Edition is the same a Pro, except that it adds e-commerce extensions
including shopping carts, orders, inventory, tax and payment gateway support.
Full Trial (Trial)
Full trial is a fully functional version of e-commerce edition, with the following
limitations, it will run for 7 days. It scrambles some vowels on the generated pages.
Check our web site for a full list of features http://www.dbqwiksite.com/features.html and feature
comparisons http://www.dbqwiksite.com/comparison.asp.
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 5
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
1.3 Installing dbQwikSite
dbQwikSite is distributed with a setup program. Copying the dbQwikSite executable file
will not work as a means to install the program.
To install dbQwikSite:
1. Download the setup file to your computer.
2. Run the setup.
3. Activate your product license
You can safely delete the install download after you have installed dbQwikSite.
When you purchase Paid Editions you will need to install the full version.
It can be downloaded from the link provided in the order confirmation e-mail, then run
the install program.
See Also:
Registering dbQwikSite
1.4 Activating Your Copy of dbQwikSite
All editions of dbQwikSite require that you activate your software. When you launch the
program, you will automatically be invited to activate your license.
Benefits and Privacy
Activating your software is a simple process and identifies you to us so that we can
provide you with support and program updates. The activation process requires only the
minimum information that we need to identify and support you as our valued customer.
We request only your name, email and your product activation code during the activation
process.
How to Purchase or Upgrade:
The easiest way to pay is via our web site. We use a payment gateway that offers secure
credit card payments, as well as a variety of other payment methods including PayPal,
cash, wire transfers, checks and Purchase Orders. For more information on ordering
please check Element5's Customer Service Web Site
You can register or upgrade your copy of dbQwikSite on our website's purchase page.
If you have any difficulty or questions you can reach us at Support@dbQwikSite.com
When you register, we will e-mail you a download link to the full version, as well as an
activation code. Download and install the full version, then activate your software as
described below.
Activating your software
dbQwikSite Help 6
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Note: All Editions, will operate in Basic Mode with only those features available until you
activate your software.
Select Help > Activate features... from the program's main menu items.
This Activation dialog will appear.
Click the Next button
Enter your Registered Username, E-mail, and Authorization Code exactly as it appears in
the email that was sent to you when you purchased your product. Be sure to enter
character case and punctuation carefully.
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 7
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Hint: You can select your activation code from your email and copy it into your
windows clipboard, using the keystroke <ctrl+c>. You can now paste your activation
code by placing your cursor into the Authorization Code and using the paste keystroke:
<ctrl+v>.
See Also:
Installing the Software
Quick Start
1.5 Quick Start
The best way to get started with dbQwikSite is to run the project wizard. It will guide
you through the steps to produce a web site, that you can either run right away or
further customize to meet your own design of requirements.
The project wizard walks you through the process of creating a new project through a
series of steps. This topic will show you how to use the create a new database web
project.
Step 1: Open or Create a Project
dbQwikSite Help 8
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Step 2: Choose a Database or Create
The next step is to locate a database.
Here we have a number of choices
1. if you already have a database and have already defined a connection, you can simply
use this connection.
2. If you have a database but have not defined a connection you can select this option to
run the connection wizard.
3. If you do not have a database, you can use a dbQwik template which has an
associated database already.
4. You can create a new database.
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 9
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
PPPPPPPP
We will use the Create New Database option in this example
Step 3: Create a Database
.
Simply choose the Help me create a dbQwikSite database and click the Next button
We then enter the name for our database.
The table builder dialog appears:
dbQwikSite Help 10
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The table builder is able to create tables from files (pictured above), using built in
templates, by designing or from ready a mySQL Script file.
You can use the built in templates to create tables based on a wide assortment of table
designs:
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 11
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You can use all the available methods in combination to create the tables you want to
include in your database.
Note: The database created is MS Access format, but you can use dbQwikSIte's X-Gen
technology to later deploy to MS Access, mySQL or MS SQL databases.
Step 4: Select Tables and Page Types
Once you have opened your database, you can now see all the available tables and Page
Types that you can generate for each table. You can check the combination that you
desire as well as adjust table names so that the transform to better web page names.
Step 5: Enter Site Settings
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You can now tell dbQwikSite about your host setting if you have the information
available. These setting will be used in your pages as default values that you can change
later. But if you know them now, enter them and it will save you the need to enter the
setting on individual pages later. You can also choose a default color theme for your site.
Step 6: Start Designing your Pages in the Designer
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 13
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---
It is possible to produce web pages with dbQwikSite within a few minutes. dbQwikSite
uses your existing PC's dataset definitions (DSN Names) and automatically creates
connections for the supplied sample projects. Assuming that you already have defined a
database connection for your data, here are the steps needed to produce web pages...
1. Click on New Project and select your build method
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2. Choose the data connection for your data
3. Set up your Data Page by clicking the Setup Button
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 15
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
4. Select the source of data to display on your web page. You can do one of the
followings:
4a Load data from a table
- OR -
4b Load data from a Query accessing several tables.
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5. Click OK
Your pages are ready for you to preview...
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1.6 Windows Vista Support
dbQwikSite has added Windows Vista support to version 5.0 and greater.
Windows Visa Support
dbQwikSite runs under Windows Vista. In version 5.0 we offer our first official support
for Windows Vista. We have tested all core features, in design and PC testing and now
support all core functions on Vista. There remain some small areas that are operational,
however require that you need to take some action to enable under vista.
Fully Supported in Vista*
Creating Projects
Designing Pages
Testing on your PC
Deploying
*Vista Home BASIC edition does not support testing ASP.net page
Limited Support in Vista
dbQwikSite Help 18
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We recommend you run dbQwikSite as Administrator. Depending on your database
connection type and your Web Server, dbQwikSite may not be able to connect to your
database, or your pages may not work properly.
If one of the following statements applies to you:
1. You are connecting to a MySQL database
2. You are using IIS with an ODBC connection
3. You need a SYSTEM DSN ODBC connection to access your database
then you must run dbQwikSite as Administrator (See note 1 below)
The following restrictions will apply if you use dbQwikSite as a standard VISTA user:
If you installed IIS you will be required to either:
Run dbQwikSite as Administrator
or
Grant full control rights on the dbQwikSite IIS Web Folders (usually
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\dbQwikSite) for the Users group (See note 2 below)
IIS is required to test pages using ASP.Net.
Services Manager - You must launch the program with administrator privileges in
order to access this feature.
From Microsoft's Help:
Running Programs as an Administrator
Windows Vista includes functionality to manually and preemptively
request that an application be started (launched). To launch a program
with a full administrator access token one time, right-click the program
icon and select Run as administrator on the menu. After the user
authorizes the elevation, the program will launch and run with the
user's full administrative access token.
Link to Article
Integrated HTML Editor - requires install of a windows extension. Windows will
prompt you that the component is missing and allow you to automatically install this
component. This needs to be done only once.
IIS Server: You need to change the credentials from the default. Execute the following
command line statements after starting command prompt as Administrator : (See note
3 below)
c:
cd c:\Windows\System32\inetsrv
appcmd set config -section:system.applicationHost/applicationPools -applicationPoolDefaults.processModel.loadUserprofile:false
When successful, you will receive this message:
Applied configuration changes to section "system.applicationHost/applicationPools" for "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST" at configuration commit path "MACHINE/WEBROOT/A
PPHOST"
.
If not running as administrator, the command will fail with the following error:
ERROR ( message:Configuration error Filename: \\?\C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config Line Number: 0
Description: Cannot read configuration file
Notes: (1) Under VISTA, being logged-in as Admin user does not make programs run as
Administrator. All programs run in limited administrative rights.
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 19
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
2) To grant the correct rights to the dbQwikSite IIS Web Folders, start your Windows
Explorer and locate that folder, right click to access the Properties and select the Security
tab. Then, click on the Edit button to add Full Control to the Users group as shown
below:
dbQwikSite Help 20
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(3) To start the Command Prompt as Administrator, pull up the Windows menu and type
cmd as shown below, then hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter instead of just the Enter key. You'll then
be prompted to authenticate, and your command will be executed as administrator
1.7 LiveUpdates
dbQwikSite supports online updates to the application using the Live Update facility.
How to Check for a Live Update
1. Select Help and Live Update from the Menu.
Getting Started With dbQwikSite 21
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
2. Click on Start
3. You will either be told there is No New Version Available
- OR -
You will be shown a list of downloadable components:
4. Check those components you want to update and Click on Next.
5. Wait for the process to complete and you are now up to date with the latest version.
Part
II
Program Features 23
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
2 Program Features
This section covers the features of the program as well as a history of which version that
features where introduced in. You can also find information relating to which features are
in which edition of dbQwikSite.
2.1 Highlight Features in this Release
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
Changes to Editions
In version 5.2 we have created 2 new editions as well as re-aligned the editions for
greater interoperability, All editions share the same IDE, or interface. The page design
experience is the same in all edition, the differences in editions have been moved to the
code generation functionality.
Personal Edition (PE)
Personal Edition can do more than before, you can view all page types and create
multiple group projects limited to a total of 25 pages. PE is a single scripting language
edition you can activate (PHP, ASP, or ASP.net) via the web, no personal information is
required for the activation process, however you can optionally register for support if you
wish. PE adds "branding" banners to your pages at is has in the past. The code
generation speed in PE is limited.
Publisher (Pub)
Publisher is a "display" edition. This means it will create display and search pages, but
no data management pages or on-line forms. If you only need to display your data
online publisher offers a cost effective solution. Publisher is a single language edition
and you must select the scripting language at time of purchase. Publisher is limited to
50 pages per project.
Express (XE)
Express is a "lite" version of PRO. It features all the functionality of PRO, except that it is
limited to a single scripting language and 100 pages per project.
Professional (Pro)
Pro remains our powerhouse edition with all features except the e-commerce extensions.
Pro generates all script languages and has no page limits.
E-commerce (Ecom)
Ecommerce Edition is the same a Pro, except that it adds e-commerce extensions
including shopping carts, orders, inventory, tax and payment gateway support.
Full Trial (Trial)
Full trial is a fully functional version of e-commerce edition, with the following
limitations, it will run for 7 days. It scrambles some vowels on the generated pages.
Page Enhancements
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Search Check Boxes
You can now add check boxes to search pages to allow users to exclude or include fields
matching on a given value.
IDE Enhancements
Universal Table Editor
The universal table editor has some new welcome functionality. You can now add
autoincrement columns to tables.
Deploy Wizard
Range of target database expanded. Previous versions limited you choice to
recommended databases depending on your design database. A new check box, now lets
you expand the list to other database types for greater cross generation flexibility.
You can now generate PHP with native MySQL connections for Windows platforms in
addition to Linux platforms.
When you deploy a single project to multiple target scripting languages, each language is
separated into its own folder.
Table Editor
The universal table editor now supports auto-increment columns.
Code Generation Progress
Code generation now shows progress and generation statistics.
Test Drive Full Trial
You can now switch to any edition to run in full trial mode, at any time within the full trial period.
Shopping Cart
You can now link your cart directly to a payment gateway without the need to save or email the order in
dbQwikSite.
Enhanced License Management
We have enhanced license management to better support and track user licenses under a
multi-license site and avoid license "clashes".
2.2 dbQwikSite - Editions
PE (Personal Edition):
This edition is free for personal and commercial use. It cannot be redistributed or
bundled with other softwares. You can however, give a copy to a friend or colleague.
dbQwikSite PE is a fully functional version for non-professional use. It is meant to be a
preview and test the functionality of the paid editions of dbQwikSite. We hope that you
will see the value in purchasing the more advanced editions after working with PE.
Limitations:
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Pages are "branded" with a dbQwikSite Banner
Code Generation Speed is limited
Projects size is limited to 25 pages.
1 generation script language is enable, which you choose and activate on-line.
Publisher Edition (Pub)
Publisher Edition is intended for those who only want to display data on their web sites.
It does not produce any data management page.
Limitations:
No Data management
Projects size is limited to 50 pages.
1 generation script language is enable, which you choose when you purchase.
Express Edition (XE)
Express Edition is a scaled down edition of PRO. It is intended for those users who do
not need multiple script language support and whose projects are not overly large.
Limitations:
Projects size is limited to 100 pages.
1 generation script language is enable, which you choose when you purchase.
Professional Edition (Pro):
Pro Edition is our "powerhouse" edition with unlimited project size and all script
languages enabled. It has everything except e-commerce extensions.
Limitations:
no e-commerce extensions
E-Commerce Edition:
Contains all the features of PRO and:
Integrated Shopping Cart
Integration to online services: PayPal, SecPay, Authorize.net and WorldPay
Tax Calculation Support
Order Management Support
Inventory Management Support
Shipping Charges Support
Limitations:
none
Full Trial Edition:
Contains all the features of Ecommerce Edition. Full trial generates all pages, in all script
languages.
Limitations:
Scrambles some text on pages.
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Limited to 7 days of execution.
Check our web site for a full list of features http://www.dbqwiksite.com/features.html and
interactive feature comparisons.
2.3 Edition Feature Matrix
Below is a screen capture of the summary feature comparison of dbQwikSite Editions.
For the most recent detailed information, please refer to our web site Features Web Page
http://www.dbqwiksite.com/comparison.asp
2.4 Features
dbQwikSite has many very useful features. Here is a list of features that are provided to
help you build professional looking web sites.
Highlight Features:
Generates complete interactive database web sites with no coding.
Generates ASP, ASP.net and PHP scripts for deployment to any (compatible)
server.
Host on either Unix or Windows
Works with most popular databases such as: MS SQL, MS Access, Oracle, DB2 and
mySQL
Creates record search and display pages.
Creates data entry pages with data validation
Creates Web Stores with integrated shopping carts.
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Integrates to payment processing services: PayPal, SecPay, Authorize.net and
WorldPay.
Integrated web publishing support.
Export web record sets to PC.
Integrated database management tools.
Database "Up Sizing" and "Down Sizing" and conversion support.
Supports changing table structures at any time. (Web Maintenance)
Integrated Security.
Complete PC Test Environment.
Localization Support.
Extensive support for controlling and customizing page appearance.
1
Other Great Features:
Split into any number of records per page.
Automatic paging navigation.
Generate variable hyperlinks using data fields.
User definable HTML Record layout templates.
Use virtually any database.
Integrated web site publishing.
Sort, Search and filter data using a visual query.
Static or Dynamic Drop Down Lists that can be linked to each other.
Master / Details Pages showing linked records. (Pro/E-Commerce)
Data Management Pages: Add, Edit and Delete.
Create E-Mail Pages containing data.
Create Shopping Carts and Checkout Pages (E-Commerce)
Integrate with PayPal Shopping Cart and On-line payment processing. (E-
Commerce)
Fully integrated security.(PE - limited to site admin security)
Integrated Visual Query Builder to select database data with absolutely no SQL
knowledge required.
Save data to visitor's PC (Pro / E-Commerce)
Create Categories for catalogs and lists (Pro / E-Commerce)
Add file uploads to your web pages. (Pro / E-Commerce)
Integrated Date Picker (Pro/E-Commerce)
dbQwikStart - Free Starter Templates
Visitors can sort data by clicking column headings (Pro/E-Commerce)
Join tables by dragging and dropping join columns.
SQL editor allows full control of SQL for SQL specialists.
Data preview allows you to verify data selection before producing pages.
Preview output in dbQwikSite or in your Browser.
User selectable fonts.
User selectable background images.
Control of HTML table cell padding, cell spacing and border width.
Customizable HTML page titles.
User defined HTML header and footers.
Customizable data formatting. Eg. Dates, Numbers and Currencies.
Generate hyperlinks with icons.
Generate picture links to data from your database.
Generate E-Mail links using database data.
Generate hyperlinks to scripts using data for link and parameters.
Use and create color scheme templates.
dbQwikSite Help 28
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Sample databases included.
1
See Also: dbQwikSite Editions
2.5 Previous Versions
This section contains information relating to which version that features were introduced
in. This is not required reading, it is simply a matter of interest to some.
2.5.1 New in dbQwikSite 5.2
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
Changes to Editions
In version 5.2 we have created 2 new editions as well as re-aligned the editions for
greater interoperability, All editions share the same IDE, or interface. The page design
experience is the same in all edition, the differences in editions have been moved to the
code generation functionality.
Personal Edition (PE)
Personal Edition can do more than before, you can view all page types and create
multiple group projects limited to a total of 25 pages. PE is a single scripting language
edition you can activate (PHP, ASP, or ASP.net) via the web, no personal information is
required for the activation process, however you can optionally register for support if you
wish. PE adds "branding" banners to your pages at is has in the past. The code
generation speed in PE is limited.
Publisher (Pub)
Publisher is a "display" edition. This means it will create display and search pages, but
no data management pages or on-line forms. If you only need to display your data
online publisher offers a cost effective solution. Publisher is a single language edition
and you must select the scripting language at time of purchase. Publisher is limited to
50 pages per project.
Express (XE)
Express is a "lite" version of PRO. It features all the functionality of PRO, except that it is
limited to a single scripting language and 100 pages per project.
Professional (Pro)
Pro remains our powerhouse edition with all features except the e-commerce extensions.
Pro generates all script languages and has no page limits.
E-commerce (Ecom)
Ecommerce Edition is the same a Pro, except that it adds e-commerce extensions
including shopping carts, orders, inventory, tax and payment gateway support.
Full Trial (Trial)
Full trial is a fully functional version of e-commerce edition, with the following
limitations, it will run for 7 days. It scrambles some vowels on the generated pages.
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Page Enhancements
Search Check Boxes
You can now add check boxes to search pages to allow users to exclude or include fields
matching on a given value.
IDE Enhancements
Universal Table Editor
The universal table editor has some new welcome functionality. You can now add
autoincrement columns to tables.
Deploy Wizard
Range of target database expanded. Previous versions limited you choice to
recommended databases depending on your design database. A new check box, now lets
you expand the list to other database types for greater cross generation flexibility.
You can now generate PHP with native MySQL connections for Windows platforms in
addition to Linux platforms.
When you deploy a single project to multiple target scripting languages, each language is
separated into its own folder.
Table Editor
The universal table editor now supports auto-increment columns.
Code Generation Progress
Code generation now shows progress and generation statistics.
Test Drive Full Trial
You can now switch to any edition to run in full trial mode, at any time within the full trial period.
Shopping Cart
You can now link your cart directly to a payment gateway without the need to save or email the order in
dbQwikSite.
Enhanced License Management
We have enhanced license management to better support and track user licenses under a
multi-license site and avoid license "clashes".
2.5.2 New in dbQwikSite 5.1
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
Page Enhancements
Java Script Menus
Add drop down navigation menus to your pages using the the Java Script Menu generator
plug-in. Menu items are created automatically for all selected groups and their entry
pages.
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Search Check Boxes
You can now add check boxes to search pages to allow users to exclude or include fields
matching on a given value.
IDE Enhancements
Security Page Wiz
Now when you enable security using the security wizard, you can have dbQwikSite
automatically generate a new page group to manage your security tables.
2.5.3 New in dbQwikSite 5.0
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
Page Design Enhancements
ASP.net (more)
Version 5.0 includes beta release of ASP.net code generation. The code generation
generates ASP.net pages which can run on .net servers. The Beta release generates
working pages for all page types. This feature will remain in Beta until final revisions are
available.
Check Box Controls (more)
You can now display database fields as check boxes on your data input pages, on data
list and search pages. Check boxes provide a clear and simple way for your users to
input yes/no type data easily. They also consume less space on your page. Using check
boxes, you now have a new option for displaying data to your visitors.
Missing Images Graphic
When you include image links in database records, very often these are optional.
dbQwikSite now generates pages that will display a "No Image" graphic, when a record
has no associated image. Your pages will show dbQwikSite's missing image, rather than
the standard "broken" image that browsers normally display when images are missing.
Your finished pages look more professional, handling optional images is a clean, polished
manner.
File Attachments on Add Page (more)
In previous versions, file/image uploads could be added only to existing records, after
the record identifier was known. In version 5.0 you can offer file/image upload on any
add page. dbQwikSite generates smarter "two step" add logic, in effect doing the add
and the update in a single pass. This new feature makes your pages easier to use with
less steps for your visitors to accomplish tasks. You can now create add pages that
include images, mp3 files, documents or any other file type.
Dynamic Site Menus (more)
Generate Dynamic drop down menus page navigation menus. This new plug-in
generates DHTML javascript menus for navigating between pages of your web site. You
generating menus is easy, just select the page groups to include, and run the plug in, it
creates, easy to modify drop down menus with a main menu entry for each group, and a
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sub-menu option for each page.
Login Page Default Target
You can now define a default target page for your Global Login. This allows you to have
new style of security presentation, presenting a login dialog before the visitor attempts to
access a secured page. dbQwikSite still checks that if your user attempts to access a
secured page and has not logged in, they will be asked to login before being allowed to
navigate to that page.
IDE Enhancements
Windows Visa Support (more)
dbQwikSite runs under Windows Vista. In this release we offer our first official support
for Windows Vista. We have tested all core features, in design and PC testing and we
now support all core functions on Vista.
HTML Editor Integration (more)
dbQwikSite now supports working with your favorite HTML editor. HTML pages and
embedded HTML fragments (such as page header and footers) can now be open in your
preferred HTML editor from within dbQwikSite, replacing dbQwikSite's the internal HTML
Editor. Changes made in your HTML editor are seamlessly incorporated back into
dbQwikSite when you end your HTML edit session. dbQwikSite also tracks all your HTML
files and advises you of any inconsistencies between dbQwikSite's information and the
external files. This means that you can work in your HTML editor and when you start
dbQwikSite, it will flag any pages that have been updated since your last dbQwikSite
session.
Web Form Converter (more)
Convert any web form from a web URL or a file on your PC into a database table in
dbQwikSite and generate sets of web pages from your new table. This powerful new
functionality allows you to build "back ends" with amazing ease.
"Universal" Database Table Editor (more)
In version 4.2 we introduced several ways that you could create tables in a local (MS
Access format) database. Now you get even more power, with the introduction of the
"Universal" Table Editor. You can edit the structure of any table available via your
database connection. This means you can modify not only local tables, but also tables in
mySQL, Oracle, MS SQL, MS Access, whatever database your dbQwikSite project is
connected to during design. Add/Edit/Change Fields, manage identifiers, and manage
indexes.
Refresh Datasets Option
You can now manually force a database schema refresh in dbQwikSite. A new option
"Refresh Dataset" is found in the explorer menu, allowing you to check that dbQwikSite
datasets are up to date with your physical database structures. The check can be done
at various levels, Project, Page Group or Page. This new feature helps if you are
modifying your database outside of dbQwikSite while designing pages.
Project Reporting (More..)
dbQwikSite implements a brand new reporting architecture. The project reporting
architecture is based on XML and plug-in reports, so you can look forward to a growing
number of project reports. Project reporting can greatly assist in managing, maintaining
and troubleshooting your projects. Consolidated, structured reporting allows you to view
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information at a project level. In version 5.0 you will find a few of these reports. For
example the project summary report gives information on all your pages, their SQL,
security settings and more, presented in a single listing. You no longer need to click
trough property dialogs to view your project design settings. If you have an idea for a
report that you would find useful, send your request to Support@TheDevShop.com
Smarter Automatic Page Items
In earlier versions, when you redefine your datasets, dbQwikSite flags any existing pages
items who's field mapping have been invalidated and it inserts new page items
corresponding to new fields found in the new dataset. Now, dbQwikSite will not
automatically add in new fields, better preserving your current page design.
Consistency Check Enhanced
A little known feature of dbQwikSite is the Design Consistency Check. This smart little
utility normally runs quietly in the background, checking your design for potential
problems that may result in the generated pages not working as you expect. It checks
for such things a orphan links. In this version we have added checking for any known
dataset inconsistencies, that may prevent your pages from working. If any problems are
detected, a dialog is shown itemizing the inconsistencies, and you can take corrective
actions. This facility is also now available through the reports menu.
When testing Consistency Check now inserts a warning in the generated pages, to help
you troubleshoot abnormal behavior.
XML Repository
dbQwikSite now stores your project data in XML format as well as dbh. This is a interim
step to migrating to a purely XML based repository (project file). At this time both files
are required by dbQwikSite. Over time the .dbh files will be dropped. Developers,
experienced in XML and XSL, can query the project's XML. They can also create new
reports using the new reporting plug-in architecture.
Sample Project Enhancements
New Features Added to Sample Projects
We have added the check box feature to the Staff Sample project. You can use this
project to see check boxes in action, and learn by example.
mySQL Database Scripts included with Sample Projects
Many first-time users have fallen into the misconception that dbQwikSite is a tool for MS
Access database because the provided sample databases are all in MS Access format. The
reality is that MS Access is simply a matter of convenience. Expert users will know that
you can generate MySQL scripts from an MS Access database. In version 45.0 we have
done this for you, including MySQL scripts for creating the sample databases in MySQL.
You will find the mySQL database creation scripts included in the database folder of your
sample projects, similar to this:
D:\My Documents\My QwikSites\Sample Projects\dbQwikSite Camera Sample\database
The mySQL script file name follows this format: dbQwik Camera mySQL.sql
Website Enhancements
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Knowledge Base Search Powered by Google
We have added Google search to our knowledge base. This provides you with a much
more flexible search engine to locate knowledge base issues. Instantly find answers to
your support questions, no need to log a question and wait for a reply, hundreds of issue
resolutions are now searchable with the power of Google.
2.5.4 New in dbQwikSite 4.2
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
IDE Enhancements
Design View Menus
We have made the design view "clickable" with pop up menus. Previously you accessed
design via the page explorer and tool bars. Now you can work in a more intuitive way
accessing may properties and design dialogs by clicking on directly on the design
preview. See it, click it, change it!
Header/Footer Apply to All option
Adding headers and footers to your site is easier with a new "Apply to" option. Design up
your header /footer on any page then replicate this to all pages with the new Apply to all
pages function.
Improved HTML/CSS support
Importing HTML now will also import CSS files and embedded images automatically.
dbQwikSite will look to a CSS folder and an Images folder in the folder that your HTML is
imported from, if it find the folders, the files are imported automatically.
Auto Backup
dbQwikSite now automatically backs up your project file every time your begin a new
session. It keeps 5 versions in an "Autobackup" folder in your project directory. If you
ever need to recover, simply look in these folders for older versions of your project.
Help Enhancements
Updated Help file
We have updated our help file with new topics, we removed old out of date topics,
updated screen shots, added a better index. You can take advantage of better overall
help.
On-line web help
You can now access on-line help from our web site or directly from dbQwikSite's
designer. Your help will always be the most current, no need to live update to get the
latest updates to help and tips from support.
Downloadable Help
You can download and install help separately. This is for people who may not have
internet connections to access on-line help, or prefer to work with local copy. Or perhaps
you are thinking of buying dbQwikSite, and want a more in depth look at certain
features.
Keyword Searchable Help
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All new powerful help full text searching. Search help like you search google or yahoo.
Find the information you need fast! No more hunting to see where a topic is covered, or
confusion on terminology. Getting to the help you need is now even easier than ever.
2.5.5 New in dbQwikSite 4.1
dbQwikSite 4.1 is minor release which offers major new features:
If you are familiar with previous versions of dbQwikSite - Here's a list of just the NEW
features:
Page Design Enhancements
CSS Editor
Enhanced support for Cascade Style Sheets. Now you can generate CSS from
dbQwikSite Color Themes, as well as edit your own CSS files directly from dbQwikSite.
Support Alt Image Text
A new optional property to pictures, "alt", is added. You can type in the text that you
want to show when pointing the mouse over an image or using database field or a
combination of both.
Hover Row Color
Add flair and easier readability to your list pages with hover colors. The row that your
mouse moves over can be assigned a highlight color.
IDE Enhancements
Gen Genie opens global security settings
If you have selected to use Security in the Gen Genie, dbQwikSite now automatically
presents you with the global security dialog to help make sure that you have a complete
security definition for your pages and local testing.
Customizable Validation Events
This is an extension of data validation where you can input your own Javascript to be
executed during data validation.
dbQwikSite Web Server
If you want to test ASP page on your machine but do not have a web server installed,
dbQwikSite will automatically start dbQwikWebServer so that you can preview the page
locally.
Detect MyODBC Settings
Improperly configured MyODBC settings can cause problems in designing and local
testing. dbQwikSite will automatically check MyODBC settings and warn you if settings
are incompatible.
Wizards Speed Design
Project wizard
This new project wizard will walk you through all the necessary steps you need to
create a new dbQwikSite project.
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Database Wizard
This wizard will allow you to create dbQwikSite database and modify tables and fields
with ease. It comprises of Table Designer where you can manually create fields by
yourself, Convert a file on my PC (CSV, Text, or Excel), Build using table template,
and Convert a MySQL script to table.
Ecommerce Wizard
This wizard will help you to set up online shopping and order management features in
order to add ecommerce features to your website.
Security wizard
You can use this wizard to secure your website. This could help you speed up the
process of setting of security level for each page. By using this wizard, all group and
page can be secured in just a few clicks. dbQwikSite can also create user table for
you.
Connection Wizard
Create a new connection has never been this easy. Just select a type of your
database then browse the file or fill in all necessary information then the connection
is ready.
Improved Project Settings in Global Group
Login, E-mail, and Validation Settings can be set up here.
Service Manager
You can start/stop/restart web server service and database service by using our Service
Management.
Intelli-test
Have you ever clicked on a button in your design layout, forgetting that this is only an
"image" of your page? Intelli-test helps by launching your browser test session for you.
Ungenerated Pages Warning
You can speed testing by unchecking page groups, which prevents code generation. But
if you ever link of flow to an ungenerated page, you will encounter an error. dbQwikSite
now warns you if you are testing or deploying pages that link to other pages that may
not yet be generated.
Ecommerce Enhancements
Inventory Management
Inventory Management will check available inventory while ordering and decrement your
inventory levels when an order is placed.
Shipping Charges and Tax Calculation
You can add shipping charges and taxes to an order.
Order Saving to Database
Order and order line can be saved into database for permanent records. You can let
dbQwikSite create tables for you or you can create your own.
New Payment Gateway
In addition to the existing support for PayPal shopping cart, now you can also choose to
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process order payments via:World Pay, SecPay, and Authorize.Net
Visitor Functionality Enhancements
Export to XML/CSV/TXT
You can now export data set in data and detail page to XML, CSV, and TXT formats as
well as the existing formats: for MS Word and Excel.
Data Validation
Now you can validate data before it is saved into your database. For example, set it as a
required field, check e-mail format, numeric field, text length, or number range.
New Password Retrieval Page
When users forget password, they can simply fill in their e-mail address and username
then the password will automatically be e-mailed to them.
E-mail Data Page and Search Results
You can now e-mail data page and search result. "E-mail from" can be set according to
user login.
Linked Drop Down List
With linked drop down list, you can create hierarchical combo list that allows you to filter
data that will be shown in drop down list. For example, Country > State > City as you
select country the state list changes to filter by country and as you select state, the city
list shows only cities in your selected state.
Site Management Enhancements
E-mail Saving to Database
Save your "Email Data Page" emails to your database. Never lose an email and
automatically create a database archive of emails.
New Bulk Import Page
This is a new page that works similar to add page except that it would accept a CSV file
and insert the values into the table that you specify.
dbQwikSite Web Checker pages
You can include file for testing site when you deploying your pages. When you run the
include file, which is asp and php, you'll know whether your machine can run asp or php
pages or not. Sometimes the technical details of your host can be hard to find. Just
upload the dbQwikSite Web Checker pages and it will tell you all that you need to know
about your web server capabilities.
Deploy wizard
The deploy wizard will help you prepare your pages and settings for your host. By using
Deploy wizard, you pages will be ready to upload to your server.
Deploy databases
dbQwikSite now offers help in moving your database to your server. File based
databases like MS Access, Dbase and FileMaker can be selected during deployment if you
want to move your PC database to your server.
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Deploy from Access to MySQL database
If you are using MS Access or MySQL, you can choose option to include database MySQL
Scripts. You can generate all MySQL Scripts for dbQwik (MS Access) Databases that can
be uploaded and run in your MySQL web admin panel.
2.5.6 New In dbQwikSite 4.0
Features introduced in version 4.0 include:
Import myPHPAdmin SQL Dumps to local (access) databases.
External CSS File Support - The ability to use your own CSS files.
Gen-Genie - A dialog that allows you to select multiple tables and page types and
generate all of these in a single operation.
Page Groups - In previous versions dbQwikSite was limited to design around a single
dataset. Page Groups allow you to have multiple datasets and a corresponding group
of pages supporting that dataset.
Expression Items - These are page items that are calculations or string manipulations
of other fields and constants.
Smart Labels - default data labels come from your database column names, Smart
Labels formats database names, inserting spaces and removing underscores to make
more readable names than the schema name.
Copy Record Page - this new page type allows visitors to create a new record in the
database based on an existing record. This can speed data entry in the case where
many field values are replicated between records.
Auto Titles - Default page headers are generated to better identify your page as well
as to create a consistent naming convention across pages.
HTML Editor - An integrated HTML editors helps you design HTML code segments, or
entire HTML pages.
Button Navigator - Adding to text hyperlink navigation, you can now have button
navigator adding a more graphic interface to your pages.
Settings Navigator - Need to know where to find a setting? These mini-maps give
you clickable hot spots of finished page images opening the correct dialog to achieve
the feature you clicked on in the map.
Layout Designer - Previously, if you wanted to create a custom layout, you had to do
this in a separate tool and embedded special tags to field placeholders. The layout
designer is an embedded HTML editor with direct links to your fields so you can design
and link in fields right in dbQwikSite simplifying the task of creating your own record
layouts.
Page Deploy Simplified - New dialogs to make page deployment easier.
Multi-Item Editor - Edit common properties on several page items at once in the
Multi-Item Editor.
Multi-Field Editor - Edit field properties on several fields at once in a single dialog.
Global Settings - Set defaults across all page groups in the global group settings.
And/Or Searching - Create advanced search with optional and/or search qualifiers.
Control Panels - dbQwikSite generates control panel pages to help make navigation
simpler.
Part
III
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3 An Introduction to Database Web Sites
This section covers a basic introduction to database web sites and is a good reference if
you are a new web authoring.
dbQwikSite takes care of as much of the complexity as it can but your web publishing
experience goes beyond the boundaries of your PC, all the way to a remote host out on
the internet. By reading this section you should develop a basic understanding of web
server technology and how it relates to you as a publisher of a database web site. By
familiarizing yourself with the fundamental concepts you can avoid common pitfalls that
can be caused by lack of understanding of some basic concepts. Knowing the concept
presented in this section you will find web creation and publishing easier.
3.1 Elements of a Database Web Site
Knowing the elements that make up a database web server can help you in
understanding exactly where dbQwikSite fits in the process.
Below is a diagram of the basic pieces that make up a web server. They consist of:
An Operating System - runs the computer
More on Operating Systems
A Web Server program - manages sending pages to a web browser
More on Web Servers
A Script Processor - Interprets scripts embedded in web pages
More on Script Processors
A Database Connection (settings) - Links pages to a database
More on Connections
A Database Manager - a program that manages SQL requests to the database
More on Database Managers
Your Database - your tables and data
More on Your Database
These are the parts necessary to be able to host web pages that you produce using
dbQwikSite. Normally all this setup is managed by your hosting company and believe it
or not, may also be set up in some form on your own PC.
Anatomy of a Database Web Server Diagram
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3.1.1 Hosts Operating Systems
On your PC, your operating system is Microsoft Windows. Your host computer will always
have an Operating System as well. It will most likely be either a Microsoft Windows
Server or Linux (UNIX).
Linux and Windows servers, are both compatible with dbQwikSite, but not with each
other. Both can host a database web site, but each is a little different. Your visitors will
never know what web server is used to serve your pages. If you think about it, when
you are surfing the web, you are happily unaware of wether your pages are being served
by a windows or Linux server. However as a web publisher, you need to be aware of the
operating system that you are deploying your pages on. Why? Basically because you
cannot "mix and match" technologies any way you wish. If your host is Windows / ASP,
then PHP may not run likewise if you are hosting on Linux and PHP, you cannot use an
access database. There are many combinations, of compatible mixes, but an equal
number of incompatibility. This is not a limitation of dbQwikSite, it is a limitation of
hosting platforms.
dbQwikSite can generate pages for both Linux and Windows Servers.
Recommended Web Host Configurations
Operating System Web Server Scripting Language Database
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Linux
(and other Unix
variants)
Apache PHP mySQL
Windows IIS ASP / ASP.net MS Access, MS SQL (any
ADO compliant
database)
Windows IIS PHP mySQL
Other configurations may also be valid, please consult support if you have any
questions.
See Also
Web Server Architecture
3.1.2 Web Servers
What is a web server? This term can often be used interchangeably to mean a hosting
computer and the Web serving software on a computer. In this case, we are talking
about the software loaded on your hosting computer which allows it to deliver web pages
in response to a request for a page from a web browser on the internet.
The most popular web servers are IIS (Internet Information Server) which runs
exclusively on windows and Apache web Server which have versions for may operating
systems, but us most popular on Linux. There are a number of other web servers in the
market. For example dbQwikWebServer ships with dbQwikSite. Normally web server
types do not impact your work in dbQwikSite. What is more important is the Scripting
language.
Recommended Web Servers are:
For Hosting:
IIS Server
Apache
For PC Testing
dbQwikWeb Server
IIS Server
Apache, only for advanced users.
There are no known issues with other web servers, but it may be worth contacting
support if you are considering using another web server.
3.1.3 Scripting Languages
What is a scripting language? It is programming language embedded in your web wages
that control the way your web pages interact with the users and with the database.
There are several popular scripting languages, such as Visual Basic Script (VB Script),
Java Script, PHP and Perl. Many people think ASP is a scripting language, but actually it
is not. It stands for Active Server Pages, and it is more like a framework than a scripting
language. In actuality ASP pages may be coded in either VB script or Java Script.
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dbQwikSite can generate ASP pages with VB Script, VB.net and PHP pages. It also
generates some Java Scripts, that runs to your browser. The scripts generated by
dbQwikSite take care of all your user and database interactions.
It is quite common for people to associate Scripting languages to operating systems. But
in actuality some scripting languages can run on different operating systems and under
certain web servers.
Language Web Server Operating
System
Comments
ASP - VB IIS Windows Standard in IIS server - Recommended
ASP - VB.
net
IIS Windows Requires .net framework installed. (Beta in
5.0)
ASP - VB dbQwikWebSer
ver
Windows Only for PC Testing. - Recommended
PHP IIS Windows Requires additional installation of PHP for
IIS.
PHP Apache Linux Usually Standard on Linux -
Recommended
ASP - VB Apache Linux Requires ChiliSoft ASP Installed. NOT
Recommended
3.1.4 Database (Your)
When we first think of a database, we naturally tend to think in terms of our data. We
think of "my customer database" or "my recipe database". Indeed these are your
databases. But each of your databases is stored in a particular file format, such as MS
Access or mySQL. Many times we will hear about MS Access or my SQL as also being
"databases". All this interchangeable terminology can sometimes lead to confusion.
However let us agree that you have a collection of records stored in some format, and
this is "your database".
You must have "Your database" located on (or accessible to ) the web server computer
where your pages are running. It makes sense that your pages display your data, and
your data is in your database and this database must be accessible to your pages. So you
need to make sure that no matter where your pages are running, they must access your
database (or a copy) in order to run.
If you have designed against a MS Access database on your PC, you must move that
database to your host for the pages to find the data. If you are designing against a
mySQL database on your host using a remote connection, you don't have to move your
database... because it is already on your web server. Also don't forget: just because you
bought a hosting package which includes a database, it will not have "Your Database",
you need to get your database loaded onto your host.
3.1.5 Database Manager
In simple terms database is software program and associated files that is able to store
and retrieve your data records.
With respect to managing data, databases can be classified into two broad categories of
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relational databases. These are desktop databases and server databases. Generally
speaking desktop databases are those that you would find on your PC like Microsoft
Access, File Maker, DBase, FoxPro and others like these. A desktop database typically
can operate without special programs running to manage the database. Server
databases on the other hand usually require some programs installed and running in
order for your web pages to access the data inside. Server databases are ones like
Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and mySQL.
You can use either type of database with dbQwikSite. It can generate SQL (Structured
Query Language) statements to interact with all kinds of databases. SQL is the way that
computer programs and scripts read and write records to a database. There are also
statements in SQL to manage is called Schema, the names of the tables and columns in
your database.
Normally desktop databases keep all your records in a single file or as a set of files in a
folder. Publishing desktop databases can usually be accomplished by moving the file or
folder to your host. Server database are far more complex in their file structures and
usually you cannot move data records by copying files, you need to export and import
records rather than copying files.
It is also important to remember that if you are using a database that is located on your
PC, that database is not accessible by your hosting server. Many user fail to understand
that their web pages read and write to a database located on their PC. They are
confused why the pages run perfectly on their PC, but when they upload the pages to the
host the pages "stop working". Quite often the answer is that the pages are looking for a
database that is on your PC. It is important to keep in mind that you must have a
database on your server for your dbQwikSite pages to work.
3.1.6 Database Connection
What's a database connection, and how is it different from my database?
A database connection is a very important concept. dbQwikSite and your pages must
"connect" to your database in order to read and write records. It's much like a
telephone, your pages must "call" your database which will accept the call and then they
can have a dialog using that connection. So the connection is very much like a phone
number. A phone number is a definition of how to reach someone, it contains
information about country codes, area codes, exchanges, and parts that are unique to
the number you are calling. When you store a telephone number in your phone you are
creating a connection definition. So if you store your father's number in your phone you
don't need to remember his number any more... you just have to call "Dad". If "Dad"
changes his number, you simply update the phone number and you keep calling "Dad".
Computers use this same technique of storing connection information under a listing
(Dad). This way programs, in our case, web pages, can be written simply to call "Dad"
they don't need to know his number, we store the number in a "connection" definition,
just like storing in your phone's memory. This way you never have to change the
programming, you only have to change the connection number.
It is this connection that we use in your web pages, this is how they can run on your
computer using one database and on your host using another database. As long as the
databases are compatible, then the code will work fine. When you use the deploy
function in dbQwikSite, you have to enter new connection information for your server
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database so that your web pages can connect to that database instead of a database on
your PC. If you do not enter the correct connection information for your server, your
pages will not be able to run. The exact connection information to connect to your server
database is usually supplied by your hosting company.
3.1.7 How The Parts Fit Together
dbQwikSite produces web pages containing web scripts which the web server uses to
produce to the final pages that you see in your browser. However the scripts are not
what your want your visitors to see, they must be read by your web server. The Script
processor reads instructions about data and formatting from your page scripts, and then
merges data read from your database to product a web page which is viewable in your
web browser.
How do the elements combine to work with your web pages? The steps are as follows:
1. Your web server receives this page request from your visitor's browser.
2. Your web server examines the requested page's file extension mypage.asp or mypage.
php and passes your page to the script processor to process.
3. The Script processor sees your that your page contains a database connection
definition, it opens that connection to your database.
4. As the script processor executes the script logic statements, it detects the SQL
statements and passes these statements to the database manager for processing.
5. The database manager, executes your SQL statements accessing your database stored
records.
6. The database manager returns sets of records to the script processor which processes
these according to the statements in your script, merging data into HTML.
7. The HTML stream is sent to your visitor's browser and that browser "renders" the HTML
stream into a viewable page based on the HTML formatting tags and text.
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Part
IV
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4 Working with Databases
dbQwikSite is a tool that works with databases, both the program itself and your
generated pages interact with your databases. This section covers an overview of
databases, and how to connect, create, read, and work with your databases in order to
produce a database web site.
4.1 Changing Table Structures
dbQwikSite includes a "universal" database table editor which allows you to alter your
database table structures. With the "universal" table editor you are able to alter the
structure of the tables in your (currently connected) database. This allows you to adapt
your table structures on-the-fly as your develop your application pages.
In this section we cover the "Universal Table Editor", how to use it to work with Table
Columns, Table Primary Keys and Table Indexes.
4.1.1 The Universal Table Editor
The Universal Table Editor is a tool for changing the structure of your database table. It
edits the definition of the tables, it is not a table data editor. With the universal table
editor you can alter the structure of any table in the database to which the dbQwikSite
designer is connected, ie your "design database". In the event that your design database
is not the same as your deployment database, the deployment database tables are not
altered.
Warning: Changing table structures can result in loss of data. The Universal
Table Editor, tries to preserve your data BUT, this is may not always be
possible for example if you drop (delete) a column, all data in that column
will be lost. Always make sure you have backed up your database before
attempting to modify it.
With the Universal Table Editor you can:
Add and remove columns in your tables
Rename columns of your table
Change the data type of your columns
Change the data length and precision of your columns
Change the mandatory data (null / not null) setting of columns
Change your table record identifiers (Primary Key)
Add and remove table indexes.
The Universal Table Editor can be launched from most dataset dialogs in dbQwikSite as
well as from the tools menu.
In dataset dialogs look for the Table Editor button :
In the tools menu look for the table editor option:
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The Universal Table Editor looks like this:
4.1.2 Adding Columns
Using the Universal Table Editor you can add columns to tables used in your project.
To Add a column, click the Add Column button:
The Column properties dialog is shown:
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Here you enter:
Field Name: A name for your Column - this must be different from other columns
already in your table
Type: The data type for your column - the list can change depending on your
database, consult your data user documentation if you are unsure.
Size: The maximum length of your data value. If the data type you select is fixed
length, as with most numeric types, then this number will show as "0" and
you cannot change it.
Required: check this this value is required at all times. If you say required, will
not be able to add a row into this table if this value is not provided. This is
equal to "Not Null" in database terms.
Hint: when naming columns: avoid database reserved words such as "select", "order",
"Where". While these usually do not cause a problem some databases may have trouble
with parsing SQL with column names that are also keywords. So the best practice is to
avoid keywords.
4.1.3 Changing Columns
Using the Universal Table Editor you can change columns in tables used in your project.
To change a column:
Click the Edit
Column button
or Double click a column in the grid
The Column properties dialog is shown:
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Here you enter:
Field Name: You can change the name for your column - any new name must be
different from other columns already in your table
Type: You can change the data type for your column - the list can change
depending on your database, consult your data user documentation if you
are unsure. changing between incompatible types can result in loss of data.
Size: The maximum length of your data value. If the data type you select is fixed
length, as with most numeric types, then this number will show as "0" and
you cannot change it.
Required: check this this value is required at all times. If you say required, will
not be able to add a row into this table if this value is not provided. This is
equal to "Not Null" in database terms. If you set this this to Required, and
any row in the table already has null values in it, the change will be
rejected.
Warning: Changing table structures can result in loss of data. The Universal
Table Editor, tries to preserve your data BUT, this is may not always be
possible for example if you drop (delete) a column, all data in that column
will be lost. Always make sure you have backed up your database before
attempting to modify it.
4.1.4 Deleting Columns
Using the Universal Table Editor you can delete columns in tables used in your project.
This is also referred to as "dropping" columns in database jargon.
To drop a column:
Select a the row in the grid that corresponds to the column you want to delete.
Look for the selected row indicator to know which row is selected.
Click the Delete Column button
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A Confirmation Dialog is shown:
Choose:
Yes : if you are sure you want to DROP the column.
No: : if you want to KEEP your column
Warning: Changing table structures can result in loss of data. The Universal
Table Editor, tries to preserve your data BUT, this is may not always be
possible for example if you drop (delete) a column, all data in that column
will be lost. Always make sure you have backed up your database before
attempting to modify it.
4.1.5 Changing Primary Keys
Using the Universal Table Editor you can redefine or add a record identifier to your tables
used in your project. This is also referred to as defining Primary Key in database jargon.
Primary keys are very important both to good database design as well as for dbQwikSite.
A Primary Key, in simple terms is the column or group of columns that provide a unique
RECORD identifier. For example a person's name is NOT usually a good record identifier,
because you could have two or more "Bobs" stored in your table. Alternatively a person's
TaxID or email, would uniquely identify which "Bob" record we are interested in. Most
databases will prevent you from adding two records that have the same primary key
value. So you can quickly get "stuck" if you choose a primary key that this not really
unique to your data.
A primary key may consists of several columns. For example city name "London" many
not be unique as there is a London UK and a London Canada. However City+Country
would uniquely identify a city. When using multi-column keys, you should make sure
that they are as "short" as possible, for example adding "Province" to the above
combination does not add any value and would create additional overhead for storage
and database searching. If you find that you are have to specify many columns to
achieve a unique identifier, you may want to consider an "system" identifier such as an
auto-increment field which assigns a sequential number to each record.
In general rules for good primary keys are:
Must be unique across all records in a table
All values used in the primary key must be available at time of creation of the record.
Keep them short (no extra column if not absolutely needed)
Use system identifiers, where there is no obvious business identifier.
A table can have only one primary key
A table should always have a primary key
Some databases will allow you to create tables with no primary key. While this is valid in
some special cases in database design, it is not recommended if you want to use
dbQwikSite to generate pages for that table. dbQwikSite, uses the primary key to pass
record references from one page, so without a primary key, your pages may not flow as
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expected.
To Add a Primary Key:
A primary key is really a special index.
Click the Edit Table Index Button
The New Index Dialog Appears.
Here you name your index, select the columns to include in the index and, select
index options, to make this index a Primary Key, you check the Primary Key
box, all Primary Keys should be Unique, so also check the Unique box.
To Edit a Primary Key
To edit an existing primary key first select any checked item in the column
"Primary Key"
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and either double click or click the edit table index
The above editor appears and you can add and remove columns from your primary
key.
4.2 Using Existing Databases
If you already have an existing database, then you can use it directly with dbQwikSite for
designing sites. This section covers the details on the tasks you need to perform with an
existing database in order to use it with dbQwikSite.
Key to understanding how dbQwikSite program and web pages read your database is the
concept of a database connection. On your PC database connections are managed by
Microsoft Windows. You must correctly configure your connection to MS Windows before
you can use it from any program, including dbQwikSite. MS Windows utilities to create
and manage connection can sometime be difficult to manage, for this reason, dbQwikSite
provides you with a wizard to help set up your database connections. This section
covers the dbQwikSite Database Connection Wizard as well as an introduction to the the
native Microsoft dialogs available to manage your database connections.
This section also covers special considerations for mySQL users. Including specific
information for working with existing mySQL databases. As well as special
considerations for those who choose to use MS Excel as a database.
4.2.1 Creating Connections
Perhaps the most misunderstood topic in getting "going" with dbQwikSite is the task of
creating a connection definition in MS Windows on your PC so that dbQwikSite can find
your data.
In order to simplify the task of creating connections, dbQwikSite provides you with our
Connection Wizard which you can run from dbQwikSite, or it may run automatically as
part of the Project Wizard.
You can also create connections manually using dbQwikSite's ADO Manager and ODBC
Manager. ADO and ODBC are two different standards for connecting to database on a
Microsoft operating system. ODBC is a older standard which uses ODBC drivers, ADO is a
newer standard that uses Data providers. ADO connections normally are preferable to
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ODBC when available. Not all databases may have an ADO Data Provider, so you may
need to opt for using an ODBC Driver, this is the case with MySQL.
4.2.1.1 Connection Wizard
The Connection Wizard, helps you create a database connection definition. Simply follow
the steps of the wizard specifying the details of your existing database, and the database
connection will create the appropriate database connection for you.
The connection wizard is the easiest way to set up a database connection. Once you
have defined a database connection, you can then use this connection to create a
dbQwikSite project.
There are 2 ways that you can access Database Wizard:
1. Wizards -> Database Wizard
2. Project Wizard -> Create New Project -> Database Web Project -> I have database ->
Help Me Set Up a New Connection
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Depending on the type of database you choose the dialog will change. You must enter
the correct information that is specific to your database. If you do not know all the
settings that you are asked for, you may need to consult the person responsible for
databases in your organization. You must correctly define a connection before you will
be able to create a project using dbQwikSite.
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3. Enter your server name or localhost if you are just working on your PC.
4. Select the Database you want to connect to from the list and then click on Finish.
See Also:
ADO Connections
ODBC Connections
Database Tips
Using Excel as a Data Source
4.2.1.2 ODBC Connections
ODBC is a standard method of sharing data between databases and other programs.
ODBC drivers use the standard Structured Query Language (SQL) to gain access to data.
You need the correct ODBC driver installed on your system to access specialized
databases, including some from Microsoft.
Setting up your ODBC Connection:
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1. Select ODBC Administrator from the Tools menu
2. Select the File DSN (data source name) tab and click the Add button. This dialog
appears:
3. Choose the appropriate option from the list (here we have chosen SQL Server) and
click the Next > button. You will be prompted to enter a name for your new data source.
4. Click next again and you will be presented with the information of your configuration.
You will then be prompted to enter the information below:
Note that these screen shots are for SQL server, the dialogs are specific to your
database type and may vary.
5. Click on Next. You will be asked for your Connection information: If you are connecting
to a specific database it is best to use the connection information for the database itself.
Using the NT logon may work for you but not others.
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6. Clicking on Next > Here we enter the name of the server to which we're connecting
and the actual database table if necessary.
7. The next screen is for advanced technical settings, you may Skip this screen without
making changes.
8. Click on Skip > And you will end up at the confirmation screen where you are asked if
you want to test the connection.
9. Click on Test > And you should see at the bottom of the test panel.
TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY!
You can use this ODBC database connection for your project.
Note: If your connection does not test successfully here, it will not work with
dbQwikSite. ODBC connections are a feature of MS Windows, not dbQwikSite. If you are
having troubles, you may find a lot of help from MS Support sites and discussion groups.
Yes, we can help too, but you may get better help from sources.
See Also:
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ADO Connections
Database Tips
4.2.1.3 Managing ADO Connections
Normally you should create ADO connections using the Connection Wizard, however you
can also create ADO connections by using the ADO Administrator. You can access the
ADO Administrator, the designer's Main Menu: Tools > ADO Administrator.
You can also use the ADO Administrator to Edit existing ADO Connections.
The ADO Administrator appears as below.
An ADO connection is simply a name and some settings, that defines the location and
type of database.
If you choose to override the default local script language definition and generate PHP
with mySQL script for PC testing, you will need to connect between an ODBC driver. You
cannot connect a MySQL database via ADO. You will need to set up an ODBC connection.
See Also:
Connection Wizard
ODBC Connections
Excel as a Data source
Database Tips
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4.2.1.4 Creating ADO Connections
Should you wish to manually set up an ADO connection, rather than using the
Connection Wizard, the steps to set up the connection are as follows:
When you are in the ADO Administrator, click the New Connection Button
The first three selections are standard from Microsoft. If you select ODBC then your pre-
existing ODBC Connection will be configured for ADO use. Other refers to additional ADO
connections provided by other vendors e.g. Informix.
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Clicking on OK shows the screen above.
Fill in the fields that define your ADO connection, (NB: these will vary depending on the
ADO connection type you select):
Provider The Database you will be accessing
Data source/Server The name of the SQL Server
Workstation The name of the Web server
User ID Login ID, if using SQL Security
Password Password, if using SQL Security
Initial Catalog/Database The name of the database.
Packet Size The amount of data to read at once. The default is typically OK
Connect Timeout How long to wait for a command to return before failure.
Windows Security For a Windows login account vs SQL Security to access the DB.
Next step is click the Test Connection to make sure it is working. A successful
connection you will produce a summary of the test.
Note: if you are using Windows Security, connections that work with the account you are
presently logged in under, may not work for the account that the web service providers
uses. Your host provider can help you work within the security settings of your host
server.
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See Also:
Connection Wizard
ODBC Connections
Database Tips
4.2.1.5 Excel as a Datasource
If you would like to use information that you currently have in a MS Excel spreadsheet,
you can simply point to this spreadsheet and use it as a database.
Some tips for using Excel as a database:
1. Named Ranges Show will as tables so you can name your tables by creating named
ranges that contain your data within the range.
2. Tabsheets will show as tables with a "$" appended to the tabsheet name. By naming
your tab sheets you can create more readable table names.
3. The first row of your data will be used as the column names, so you should include a
header row.
4. Some columns that are formulas do not work as data, if this happens, try to copy your
table and "Paste Special" > "Values" into a new tabsheet, this should help.
5. Each record should have a unique ID, if your data does not have a unique identifier,
you can create one by inserting a column and typing 1 in the first row, 2 in the second
row, then select both cells and drag down, excel should fill down 3,4,5.... until you
reach the last row.
6. Because Excel does not have the idea of a primary key, dbQwiksite will attempt to
match all columns on page flows, you should check your field mappings, click Clear,
and map only on the Unique ID, this will make sure your pages run properly.
7. Not all SQL commands work with Excel. This is a limitation of Excel as a database, not
dbQwikSite.
8. There is additional information available from Microsoft on working with Excel as a data
base with web sites.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q278973/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/195951/
You may also convert your excel into an MS Access database using the database wizard.
See Also:
Connection Wizard
ADO Connections
ODBC Connections
Database Tips
4.2.2 Connecting to MySQL Databases
dbQwikSite support multiple database types, among these is mySQL. mySQL is an open
source database which runs on Linux and Microsoft servers. It is very popular as a
database to be used with web sites. Because of its popularity we include a section to
help those users who are working with mySQL. This section covers additional
information relating to mySQL.
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4.2.2.1 mySQL Essentials
When you are using mySQL as your database, you will need to connect both from your
PC and with your published pages. The table shows the various combinations when
using mySQL and the supported connection type.
Operating System Function Script Language Connection Type
Windows Designing with dbQwikSite N/A myODBC
Windows Testing on PC ASP myODBC
Windows Testing on PC PHP Native or myODBC
Windows Hosting PHP Native
Windows Hosting ASP myODBC
Linux Hosting PHP Native
mySQL Connection Compatibility Chart
Where is your Database?
Another important consideration when connecting to your mySQL databases from your
PC is the database's location. Do you have mySQL installed running on your PC or is
your database hosted on a server on your LAN or on the Internet?
You can normally connect to mySQL no matter where it is located, but there are more
restrictions and prerequisites.
Location Requirements
Your PC You must have the mySQL database program installed on your PC.
You must have the mySQL service running
You must have MyODBC.
You must have a myODBC connection defined.
LAN Server You must have myODBC installed on your PC
You must have a connection defined to your LAN mySQL Server
Your PC must be connected to your LAN.
Hosting Server on Internet You must have myODBC installed on your PC.
You must have a connection defined with your PC
Your Hosting Service must have configured mySQL security to allow
remote connections.
You must be connected to the internet.
4.2.2.2 myODBC for MySQL
If you are planning to connect to mySQL from your PC you will need to install and set up
a myODBC connection. Below are the steps you will need to get a connection installed.
myODBC Driver for your PC
Important Note: If you have installed help on your PC. Always check the on-line
version of this help page on the web using this address:
http://www.dbqwiksite.com/help/5000/index.htm?myodbc.htm
In order to design using a mySQL database, you will need to download and install the
ODBC driver for MySQL before you are able to connect to a mySQL database.The ODBC
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driver for mySQL is called myODBC and can be downloaded from the mySQL web site at
the following URL: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/
The recommended version of MyODBC for dbQwikSite 5 is 3.51.15.0.
Important Advanced Settings are required. Read the details on the last section of
this page
myODBC Configuration Settings
You can access mySQL connection setting by using the Connection Wizard or the ODBC
Administrator. When setting up a mySQL ODBC connection your will be presented with
the following myODBC dialog.
myODBC Login Dialog
You must fill this in with the details that are particular to your environment:
Setting Explanation
Data Source Name The name you want to assign to this connection.
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Description Any notes that you want to add. This field has no effect on the
connection.
Server the URL, name or IP address of the server running MySQL, if it is
running local use "Localhost" or 128.0.0.1
User The database user ID that has been assigned by the database
administrator or ISP. Sometimes it is "root" or your domain name. This
usually is not the same as your hosting control panel user ID.
password The password your database administrator or ISP has assigned to you
for logging into your database. This usually is not the same as your
hosting control panel password.
Your database name if you have enters the preceding values correctly, you will be presented
with a list of databases on the server, to which you have access. Select
the database you wish this connection to access.
Setting Explanation
Port leave blank, unless you installed using a non-standard port and have
been advised to use a value your Hosting has provided. Note: the
standard port is 3306
Socket Leave this blank, unless your hosting has advised you otherwise.
Initial Statement Leave blank
Advanced Settings:
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Make sure all options on your connection are set as above.
Note: Enable Auto-Reconnect resolves most cases of My server has gone away
errors.
Click TEST
Your test must be successful in order to use this connection in dbQwikSite projects.
If your test fails please verify your settings and try again. If you are sure the settings
are correct, but you cannot connect to your database on a host server, it is likely that
your hosting has blocked remote connections to mySQL for security reasons. If this is
the case, you have the options to either user dbQwikSite's mySQL Script Import feature,
or to install mySQL on your PC.
4.2.2.3 Importing MySQL Scripts
With dbQwikSite you can connect directly to remote mySQL databases to design your
pages. If your MySQL provider does not allow remote connections to your Database, you
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may import a MySQL script you create by exporting from phpMyAdmin. This will create a
local database in MS Access format which you can then work for design and later publish
your pages back to mySQL with dbQwikSite's X-Gen technology.
When to use Importing vs Connecting
The most common reason for importing data is because your Hosting company has
disabled the remote connection feature of mySQL for security reasons. Another reason
may be for ease and speed of design over internet connection.
Producing a myPHPAdmin SQL Export:
Many hosting companies provide you a web panel called myPHPadmin to manage your
database. This tool has the capability to dump your database to a text file that can
then be used by dbQwikSite to create a local copy of your database.
1. Log into your hosting web panel and locate your mySQL management panel, look for
the export or dump option. You should see a dialog as shown in Figure 1. Select
options for export as highlighted by the red boxes in Figure 1. Then export. This
should start a download of a zip file to your PC.
Figure 1
2. Unzip your export file to any folder on your PC.
Importing your MySQL script:
1. From the Tools Main Menu, choose Import from MySQL Script
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2. Locate your MySQL script on your machine.
3. You may alter the suggested name for the database to be created.
4. You can choose whether to import the tables only, or the tables and data.
5. Click OK
Your database will be created, and a Connection Name with the same name as the
database.
4.2.2.4 Publishing to mySQL
When you publish your site using the deploy wizard, dbQwikSite will automatically create
a _connection.php file containing your server settings that you entered in the deploy
wizard. You can also manually edit this file if you choose, should you change hosts or
other connection information.
Example of a local connection file versus on that could represent your server.
Local
<? php
$host = "localhost:3306";
$db = "test";
$user = "root";
$passwd = "";
$link = mysql_connect($host,$user,$passwd)
or die("Could not connect");
mysql_select_db("test") or die("Could not select database");
?>
Server
<? php
$host = "yourhost:3306";
$db = "test";
$user = "root";
$passwd = "";
$link = mysql_connect($host,$user,$passwd)
or die("Could not connect");
mysql_select_db("test") or die("Could not select database");
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?>
4.2.2.5 Installing and configuring PHP with MySQL
You do not need to install PHP and mySQL on your PC in order to design sites that will
use PHP and mySQL. Using dbQwikSite's X-Gen technology you can design using ASP/
MS Access and later scale up to mySQL and PHP when you publish.
You do not have to have a Linux (unix) server to run PHP and mySQL. You can run
Apache/MySQL/PHP on your windows PC. You may wish to install these on your PC in
order to design and test is a set up that is closest to your host environment.
Getting AppSever
If you do want to set up your PC to run Apache, PHP and mySQL you need to install all
these software packages onto your PC. Fortunately there is an easy way to do this. The
AppServerNetwork open source project is a project that tests compatibilities and
packages all these programs into a single install package, making installing much easier
than trying to download the individual components.
You can download AppServer from http://www.appservnetwork.com/index.php
When you download and install AppServer you will be installing:
Apache
MySQL
PHP
phpMyAdmin
Changing dbQwikSite Settings
When you install dbQwikSite it will default to generating ASP and using
dbQwikWebServer for local testing. If you install Apache and PHP, then you will need to
adjust the default settings.
The local generation settings are found in Tools>Project Settings
Here you will see the local generation settings
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When you install AppServer you will either use the default settings or select you own.
Above we show the most common settings, however you exact settings have to match
you install of AppServer.
You should select the Local Setting tab, and change your port number to 80. You also
should change your script generation to PHP.
Trouble Shooting Hints
Always use the test connection button, if the test fails, you will not be able to test.
If you are using a PC that has IIS server running on it, it likely will be using port 80.
We recommend stopping the web publishing services before starting Apache. You can
stop web publishing services using service management tool shown as an option in the
above menu screen capture. Alternatively you can run Apache on a different port
number, just make sure that you set the local settings to match
If you are having troubles with AppServer, you can access support from user groups at
http://www.appservnetwork.com/forum/index.php
Many errors are related to your set up. Often a search on Google or Yahoo for the error
message text will locate a wealth of information to help you resolve your problem.
4.3 Creating a Database
dbQwikSite works with databases. If you do not have an existing database, you can
create one using dbQwikSite. To create a database in dbQwikSite, you use the database
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wizard. From within the database wizard you have several different methods that you
can use to create table, you can :convert certain PC files to Tables, Import table
definitions from MySQL Scripts, use dbQwik table templates, or manually design your
table. The database wizard is only available if your PC database is MS Access (see note
below).
Note: Internally dbQwikSite uses MS Access for PC databases. You do not have to buy
the MS Access program, it simply means that this is the file format used internally by
dbQwikSite. You do not have to publish to using MS Access as your target database.
Using dbQwikSite X-Gen, you can design using MS Access on your PC, and then deploy to
either MS Access, MySQL or SQL Server.
4.3.1 Database Wizard
The Database Wizard helps you to create dbQwikSite database with ease. You can create
databases using a variety of techniques in combination. You can convert Excel, text and
csv files to tables, you can create a tables based on built in templates, you can design
tables yourself. dbQwikSite creates database in MS Access format, these can later be
published or converted to MS SQL or mySQL.
There are 2 ways that you can access Database Wizard.
1. Wizard -> Database Wizard
2. Project Wizard -> Create New Project -> Database Web Project -> I don't
have database -> Next
The database wizard lets you create new tables in four different ways:
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Converting PC Files to Tables
Converting files lets you use existing data that you have in some types of PC files as a
database for dbQwikSite. Three file types are supported: CSV, Text, and Excel. When
you convert a file into a table dbQwikSite will create a table to contain the file data as
well as import the data as records in your new table.
1. Browse the file that you want to import
2. If your data file contains multiple data tables (can occur in Excel) you next select a
table from your input file.
3. Be sure to choose at least 1 field to be the key (unique identifier) of your table records.
4. Enter a table name in the New Table Name input box.
5. Click the Create button
Hint: You can delete fields by right clicking on any field -> Delete field
Using Table Templates
Table template allow you to create new tables in your database, based of common
templates. This can greatly speed designing table over manually designing. You pick a
table from a list available template. Each table template has a set of template fields.
You can can include and exclude suggested fields to create a table that is tailored to your
needs.
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1. Select a Template Type
2. Select a Template Table
3. Use the arrow buttons to move fields to your field list.
4. Make sure that you select at at least one field act as the unique identifier of your
records.
5. Enter a name for your new table.
6. Click on Create button
Hint: You can change field names by right clicking on any field -> Rename
Note that when you create a table from a template it will not contain any data records.
You can create an add page in dbQwikSite that you can use to enter sample data.
Designing a Table Manually
You can design tables by typing in the field definition and saving the design into a new
table.
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1. Double click to add field name, select data type, length
2. Press tab key to add another field.
3. Click on Create button
Note that when you create a table manually it will not contain any data records. You can
create an add page in dbQwikSite that you can use to enter sample data.
Convert a MySQL Script
Import a phpMyAdmin SQL script to clone your MySQL tables
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1. Browse SQL file
2. Tables will automatically listed
3. Select tables
4. Adjust any fields
5. Click on Create button
See more on creating mySQL exports and importing
4.3.2 Creating Tables From Web Forms
dbQwikSite provides you with wizard to Import any web form, and create a database
table based on the fields of the form and generate pages to manage this table. You can
import web forms directly from the internet of from a file on your PC.
Many webmasters are familiar with web forms. Using an HTML editor you can visually
design a form, that collects data which you would like to store in your database. Just
open that form in dbQwikSite Web Form to DB Wizard, and dbQwikSite will guide you
through the process of creating a table and page group on your new table.
You can also import any web form from the internet. Just point dbQwikSite's Web Form
to DB Wizard to the URL and it will create the table and pages. You need to manage the
data of that form.
Note: Importing web forms imports only the fields definitions not the appearance of the
form.
To Import a web form into dbQwikSite:
1) Start the Web Form to DB Wizard, from the Wizard Menu:
The Wizard Starts:
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2) Enter a URL or Browse to a file on your PC, then click Load
Hint: To enter a URL, browse to the
page in your browser, then copy the
address from your browser, and paste it
here.
3) When the form has fully loaded, click Next.
dbQwikSite will ask you to select a name for the new table in your database. By default,
the name is the HTML form Name tag if it exists in the form you loaded. You can give
any name you like as long as it does not already exist in your database and that it
complies with the naming conventions of your database.
4) dbQwikSite will create a table based on your form. You can further customize the
table to your requirements.
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5) dbQwikSite now launches the New Group wizard allowing you create a new page
group:
The new group wizard show automatically when you create a new group or perform other
actions that in turn require a new page group. It guides your through steps of getting
your pages setup and ready for design and testing. The
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4.3.3 Importing MySQL Script
With dbQwikSite you can connect directly to remote mySQL databases to design your
pages. If your MySQL provider does not allow remote connections to your Database, you
may import a MySQL script you create by exporting from phpMyAdmin. This will create a
local database in MS Access format which you can then work for design and later publish
your pages back to mySQL with dbQwikSite's X-Gen technology.
When to use Importing vs Connecting
The most common reason for importing data is because your Hosting company has
disabled the remote connection feature of mySQL for security reasons. Another reason
may be for ease and speed of design over internet connection.
Producing a myPHPAdmin SQL Export:
Many hosting companies provide you a web panel called myPHPadmin to manage your
database. This tool has the capability to dump your database to a text file that can
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then be used by dbQwikSite to create a local copy of your database.
1. Log into your hosting web panel and locate your mySQL management panel, look for
the export or dump option. You should see a dialog as shown in Figure 1. Select
options for export as highlighted by the red boxes in Figure 1. Then export. This
should start a download of a zip file to your PC.
Figure 1
2. Unzip your export file to any folder on your PC.
Importing your MySQL script:
1. From the Tools Main Menu, choose Import from MySQL Script
2. Locate your MySQL script on your machine.
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3. You may alter the suggested name for the database to be created.
4. You can choose whether to import the tables only, or the tables and data.
5. Click OK
Your database will be created, and a Connection Name with the same name as the
database.
4.4 Working with Database Records
Once you have connected to a database, you then have access to all the tables of records
in that database.
Each page group in dbQwikSite uses a "Dataset", while very often a dataset is a database
table, it does not have to be a single table. It can be a query of several tables which
contains subsets of fields available from those tables. This section covers topics that will
help you create "Queries" which enable you to retrieve the data you need for your
datasets from that available tables and fields in your database.
4.4.1 The Visual Query Builder
If you want to create a page that displays data that is from several related tables, or
contains only a subset of the records in a table, you can do this using SQL Queries.
dbQwikSite contains a built in visual SQL query builder to allow you to design queries
visually. You do not need any SQL knowledge to create queries this way.
The visual query is available from several dialogs in dbQwikSite. Usually anywhere you
can select a table, your can also build a query using the visual query builder. For
accessing the Visual Query Builder for your Page Group Dataset, follow these steps.
1. Double Click your Page group dataset.
2. The Dataset Items Editor will appear, Click the Redefine Dataset Button.
3. Select "Load data from query" and Click the "Visual Query Builder" button
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4.4.2 How to Build a Query
dbQwikSite's Visual Query Builder will generate virtually any SQL query you will need for
your Page Group Datasets. The generated SQL query can be viewed in the SQL Editor.
Advanced SQL programmers can use the SQL editor to further customize SQL or create
SQL statements from scratch.
Using the Visual Query Builder is very simple, it does not require any SQL syntax
knowledge. You simply add the tables that contain the data you want and Visual Query
Builder will generate the query SQL Statement for you.
These topics will guide you on how to use Visual SQL Builder:
Adding a table to a query selecting the tables you wish to read data from
Selecting Fields from the tables you have in your query.
Joining Table Linking your tables together to associate related records from different
tables to each other.
Filtering Data to display only the records that you need and eliminate records that you do
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not want to show.
Sorting Data: to organize the initial listing order of records on your web pages.
When you have finished, you can see the SQL Statement by clicking on the View SQL
tab. You can see the data that you have selected by clicking on View Data Tab.
Note: How to program in SQL is a separate topic. You can find good SQL references on
the internet.
Try A Gentle Introduction to SQL
4.4.3 Adding Tables to Query
To include a table in your query you can add it by:
1. Double clicking a table in the list on the left hand side.
2. Drag and drop a table from the left and drop it into the work area on the right
3. Click the Add Table button from the tool bar and select the table to add.
See Also:
Selecting Fields
Joining Tables
4.4.4 Selecting Fields for your Query
When you add a table to your query, all the fields (columns) are automatically selected.
You change the check boxes to include only the columns that you require in your page.
Tip: If you only need at few columns, Right-Click the table title and choose the "Select
No Items" option from the popup menu. Then manually select the columns that you
would like to retain.
See Also:
Joining Tables
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4.4.5 Joining Tables
If you want to retrieve data from more than one table, you must define how the related
tables are linked. This is achieved by joining fields (columns) between the tables. The
linked fields should correspond to each other. For example the Customer ID field in an
Invoice would correspond to the Customer ID field in the Customer table.
You may modify the query inside the Visual Query Builder
Simple Table Joins
To join tables, drag a field in the first table and drop it on the corresponding field in the
second table.
Advanced Table Joins
1. Click the Join Link Line to select it. It will highlight.
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2. Right Click to access the popup menu and select Join Properties. 3. Select the
appropriate Join Type from the dialog box. This allows you to change the default
properties of a join
In the Join Properties Window, you can control how the records that do not match
are handled. Normally, rows that do not have a matching record in the joined table, are
omitted from the resultant dataset. In some cases you may want all the rows from one
of the tables, and the corresponding rows in the second table if they are present.
Join Type allows you to change the behavior of your table join. The default setting is
"only those records where the two values match". By selecting the second option you
are performing the equivalent of an Inner Join, i.e. all records from the First table. The
third option is the same as an Outer Join so all records in the right hand table.
Compare Operator. As you change the compare operator the condition is applied to
the second and third join types. The first is always an equality comparison. The Inner
or Outer join will be satisfied by the condition selected.
See Also:
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Adding Tables to Query
Selecting Fields
4.4.6 Filtering Records
Sometimes you may not want every record from your table to appear in your dataset. If
this is the case, you can filter your dataset by some criteria.
Example:
Your customer list may contain customers from many countries, but in your dataset, you
may only want customers from the UK. You can filter your data to include just UK
customers.
To filter your dataset:
1. Right Click on the field you want to filter and select Filter from its pop up menu.
2. The Filter dialog box appears
3. Click the Add button to define another filter criteria
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4. Click OK
From the example above, First, you right click the "country" field, then select "=". After
that you type in the "UK". The result will display only customers living in UK.
See Also: Sorting Data
4.4.7 Sorting Data
You can specify a sort order using the SQL Builder - Your data can be ascending or
descending as you require.
To define the Sort Order:
1. Right Click on the field you want to sort, and select Sort Ascending or Sort Descending
as required.
Note: If you specify more than one sort, then each additional sort is performed within the
prior sorts (preserving the higher level sorts).
To change the sort priority:
1. Right Click on sort field and select the Sort Order option from its popup menu.
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2. The Sort dialog box appears. You can change the order of the field by dragging each
field up or down to the desired order.
See Also:
Filtering Data
4.4.8 Eliminating Duplicate Records
When you perform queries on your data, you may find that the results contain duplicate
records.
Example
If you were to select the country from the customer table (customer personal
information), it would return each record that has a country, hence the country would
repeat for each customer in that country. If you which to eliminate this repetition use
the Select Distinct SQL feature.
To Eliminate Duplicate Records:
1. Right Click on the grey background of query work area, and then select Distinct from
the popup menu.
2. You will see the Check sign by the Distinct menu. This means the duplicate rows will
be eliminated from your result set.
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3. Validate the result set by viewing the data in the SQL Builder
The above example should give you a list of all the countries, in which each country is
listed only once.
4.4.9 View SQL
If you wish to see the SQL Syntax of any query just click the View SQL tab.
4.4.10 Viewing Selected Data
To see the data you have selected in your query:
1. Click the View Data tab on the SQL Builder dialog box.
Here you will see the data that has been selected to be placed in the web pages.
4.4.11 Customizing the Query
If you are familiar with SQL you may wish to customize the SQL to perform specific
tasks. To customize SQL simply type in your changes into the SQL view.
Note: Not all SQL statements will produce record sets compatible with dbQwikSite record
processing. If you customize SQL you may find some dbQwikSite functions do to perform
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as expected.
4.5 Database Tips
Table Identifiers
It is possible to have tables that do not have a primary key (unique identifier). However
dbQwikSite uses the table primary key to generate code and know how to locate records.
It is best to ensure that tables linked to dbQwikSite pages do have a primary key
assigned to them.
MDAC
MDAC is microsoft's driver software for ADO connections.
Microsoft MDAC Version 2.8 or higher is required to allow all dbQwikSite operations and
advanced functionality.
When you start dbQwikSite, it will show your installed MDAC version in the bottom left
hand corner of the application. If your version is earlier than 2.8, go to Microsoft's site to
download the latest version.
4.6 Moving Your Data to Your Server
Moving an Access Database
Your MS Access database is contained in a single file with an ".mdb" file extension.
Moving your database to the host is accomplished by transferring this file to your server,
using FTP, or any other means to copy the file.
Moving a MySQL, MS-SQLServer, Oracle etc. Database
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Most "true" relational databases keep data in several files as well as configuration
information files. Normally you cannot move the files to the host as a means to transfer
the data, you must export the data from your local data base and import it into your
server database. This is usually accomplished by using database utilities. Alternatively,
we can recommend dbQwikSync and dbQwikEditwhich have features to move data
between databases, even between different databases. For example, it is possible to
move your local MS Access data to your remote mySQL database. You will need to ensure
that your have been granted sufficient security permissions on your web host to do this.
dbQwikSite will not move your database for you, as it may result in the loss of data on
your server, duplication of data, or possibly test data being moved to your server.
You will need to manage your data and database according to your particular situation.
Part
V
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5 Working with Projects and Files
dbQwikSite keeps all your web site design in a file called a "Project". The program also
uses other files such as images, HTML pages, CSS and other files to be used as input in
the creation of your web pages. Likewise, dbQwikSite also produces files, these are the
web pages that form your web site. This section covers the topic of files in the context of
dbQwikSite and working with the program.
5.1 What is a Project
What is a Project? When you start dbQwikSite, and design web pages, this design is
called a "Project". All your project design is stored in a dbQwikSite file with the file
extension .dbh.
Why don't we just call it a "web site"? Most of the time one project is one web site, but
this is not always the case. You may create a web site made up of many projects. We
also don't call it a "web site" because it may not be your web site in it's entirety, you
could well have many pages of your web site that are produced using a tool like
dreamweaver, in this case your dbQwikSite project is just a part of your whole web site.
Your project is all kept in your .dbh file. It is your project information that is used to
generate your web pages. Your web pages are outputs of your project, this is why you
can swhich between ASP and PHP at deploy time, there is nothing in your project relating
to the web page script language, it is just the design, the scripts are generated from the
design.
Page Groups can be exported and imported between projects, as long as the databases
are compatible. Projects can also created from project templates available for download
from dbQwikSite's web site.
Project files are upwardly compatible between dbQwikSite Editions. This means that a
project made with PRO cannot be opened with PE, but a project with PE can be opened
with PRO.
5.2 Create a Project
There are many ways that you can use to create a project. You have options to create
projects from templates, from blank projects or by using the Project Wizard. Using the
Project Wizard is the easiest way to access all these methods to create a project.
To access the project wizard starts automatically when the program starts. You can also
access the new project functions form the main menu.
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See Also
Project Wizard
Gen Genie
5.3 New Database Project
The project wizard walks you through the process of creating a new project through a
series of steps. This topic will show you how to use the create a new database web
project.
Step 1: Open or Create a Project
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Step 2: Choose a Database or Create
The next step is to locate a database.
Here we have a number of choices
1. if you already have a database and have already defined a connection, you can simply
use this connection.
2. If you have a database but have not defined a connection you can select this option to
run the connection wizard.
3. If you do not have a database, you can use a dbQwik template which has an
associated database already.
4. You can create a new database.
PPPPPPPP
We will use the Create New Database option in this example
Step 3: Create a Database
.
Simply choose the Help me create a dbQwikSite database and click the Next button
We then enter the name for our database.
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The table builder dialog appears:
The table builder is able to create tables from files (pictured above), using built in
templates, by designing or from ready a mySQL Script file.
You can use the built in templates to create tables based on a wide assortment of table
designs:
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You can use all the available methods in combination to create the tables you want to
include in your database.
Note: The database created is MS Access format, but you can use dbQwikSIte's X-Gen
technology to later deploy to MS Access, mySQL or MS SQL databases.
Step 4: Select Tables and Page Types
Once you have opened your database, you can now see all the available tables and Page
Types that you can generate for each table. You can check the combination that you
desire as well as adjust table names so that the transform to better web page names.
Step 5: Enter Site Settings
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You can now tell dbQwikSite about your host setting if you have the information
available. These setting will be used in your pages as default values that you can change
later. But if you know them now, enter them and it will save you the need to enter the
setting on individual pages later. You can also choose a default color theme for your site.
Step 6: Start Designing your Pages in the Designer
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5.4 Backing Up and Restoring Projects
Backing up:
dbQwikSite automatically creates a backup of your project every time you begin an edit
session, that is to say every time you open your project. dbQwikSite will keep the last 5
session backups in a sub-folder of your project folder. The sub-folder name is
"AutoBackups" you will see folders numbered -1, -2...-5. where -5 is the oldest and -1 is
the newest.
To recover a file:
1. Stop the dbQwikSite program.
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2. Back up or rename your project file in your main project folder.
3. copy the backup dbh file into your main project folder
4. Restart dbQwikSite.
Warning! Read this!
The auto backup only backs up your project.dbh file. You project also uses images,
databases and other files. Auto-backup is not meant as a way to protect your computer
and projects from all types of failures. You are strongly advised to perform regular
backups of your PC to external media.
5.5 Saving Your Project
When you use dbQwikSite to produce web pages - you create queries, settings and
customizations. These must all be saved into a "Project" so that your designs are
retained and you can reopen them at any time.
To save your project:
or Click the Save button on the main toolbar or File > Save Project..
2. Choose the location to save the file.
5.6 Generating Web Pages
Web page generation is automatic based on you action. If you choose to test on your PC,
your pages are automatically generated to allow you to preview. Likewise when you
deploy, your pages are also generated correctly for your target platform and placed in
the folder that you specify for deployment. The deployment folder is one that you specify
in the deployment dialog.
See Also
Deploying Pages
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5.7 Converting Projects from Previous Versions
When we release a new version of dbQwikSite we always make sure that it is able to
open projects of the previous version.
Normally there is nothing special that you will need to do to "convert" projects from older
versions. The project is converted automatically as soon as you open it. Note that you
cannot open Project created by newer versions of the software with older versions. This
means that if you open a project created with 4.0 using dbQwikSite 4.1 and save your
project, you cannot then open this project with 4.0. For this reason is it always wise to
copy or back up your projects when upgrading your software versions.
It is also important to note that interoperability of projects between Editions (PE,PE+,
PRO and Ecommerce) are also only "upward compatible". That is to say, you can open a
project created using PRO with the Ecommerce Edition, but you cannot open all projects
created with Ecommerce Edition using PRO.
5.8 The Sample Projects
Included with dbQwikSite are two simple sample projects to help you get started and
learn by example
The sample project are compatible with dbQwikSite PE, and all higher editions. Because
they are PE Compatible, they are limited to show only the features that available in PE
(Personal Edition).
If you are seeking more advanced samples, the dbQwikStart Biz Templates are a good
place to start: http://www.dbqwiksite.com/demo.asp
The sample projects can be found in: My Documents\My QwikSites\Sample Projects
dbQwikSite Staff Sample
This project demonstrates a simple list management with no security.
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dbQwikSite Camera Sample
This project demonstrates the use of record layouts, integrating images, and securing
pages.
5.9 Using Multiple Projects for one site
dbQwikSite supports multiple projects for a single web site. There are a few reasons why
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you may want to do this:
1. You have multiple developers, each dealing with a "Sub"-Site.
2. You are using Single Group Edition (PE or PE+) and you want to:
a)Manage more than 1 table, you can a project for each table.
b)You want to have "public" and an "Administrative" section to your site.
c) To hide administrative links on Data Pages.
d)To create several versions of the same page with different security levels. For
example you may have an edit Employee Page available at security level 5 but you
also have this page with an additional field "Salary" at level 9 this way admin with
security level 5 can manage the employee details, but only managers with level 9
can change the salary.
You may have other reasons for using multiple projects for a single site.
Remember, it is always useful to keep in mind that this option is available to you if your
site requirements exceed what you can do in a single project.
Check under Session Variables to ensure that there is no clash between the default
session variables and any you may have added in the different projects.
Projects can share databases on the same server and you can share or duplicate pages
between projects.
5.10 Supporting Files
dbQwikSite works with a number of different fie types including Cascading Style Sheets
and the ability to localize content in your web site pages. This section cover the different
types of supporting files that are used in conjunction with your web pages.
5.10.1 Localization Files
There are a set of files that we call "Language files" which store your localization
translations. In standard installations, the files are stored in C:\Program Files
\dbQwikSite version\Localize. There is one file per "language". The files are a specially
formatted text file and use the .txt file extension, If you use dbQwikSite's localization
tool you can create new Language files by exporting your translations. You can also edit
these files in any text editor.
See Also:
Localizing Your Web Pages
5.10.2 CSS Files
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. dbQwikSite will produce CSS files as part of your
project or you may create your own CSS using an HTML editor or other tool. CSS contain
definitions of how text, and other elements of your web page should appear and allow
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you to create a consistent look across all pages using this CSS. By changing a CSS style
definition in the CSS file, any page using that CSS will automatically adopt the new
appearance.
5.10.3 Page Group Exports
Page Groups can be exported and imported this feature allows you to share groups
between projects and between developers. Each export group is written to a file with a .
dbg file extension. These .dbg files use a binary file format and cannot be edited using
other tools. They contain information about the design of your group, the datasets,
pages, page items etc.
It is important to remember that your project connects to a single database. If you are
sharing groups, groups must share a common database, otherwise the tables that your
group operates on may not be available in both databases and the group will not be able
to finds its records.
5.10.4 Keeping Images
dbQwikSite saves all images in the project image library and keeps track of the folder/
directory where images are kept. When your pages are generated, all images referred to
in the image list will be copied to the folder/directory set in the Web Server Directory and
the Image Folder name in the menu Tools -> Options.
To Add Images to the Image Library:
1. Right Click on Images in the tree-view on the left side.
2. Select Insert Items... option from the popup menu
3. The Load Images From dialog will appear. Specify the folder/directory where the
images are stored and select the image files you want.
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4. Click the image name and the selected image will be listed on the left side and a
preview of each image on the right.
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Part
VI
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6 Working with the Designer
dbQwikSite program's main window is called the "Designer". In this window you can
create all your web pages, customize your site's appearance and control the behavior of
your pages. From the Designer you can also launch testing on your PC, generate and
publish your web site.
This section describes the elements of the Designer and helps you understand the tools
and displays that you will use to create your web site.
6.1 The Explorer
The Explorer is located on the left hand side of the designer. It shows a treeview of all of
dbQwikSite's Page Groups, Pages, Page Items, datasets, and Dataset Fields
Each "Page Group" contains a set of pages that operate using the Dataset of that page.
Each Page group can contain multiple pages. Within Pages, you find Page Items and a
dataset supplying data to the page..
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Each page has a dataset displaying the fields of the records of your table or query.
Properties allow you specify the design of the web pages i.e. Page Properties include the
title, header, or footer of your page.
Page Group: Is a collection of related pages which work together as functional unit.
For example the search page controls which records are displayed on the data page.
Data Sets - to display the fields you have selected from your database.
Page Items - to display the list of fields, literals and controls which are displayed on
your web pages
There is a small toolbar at the top of the Explorer with the following buttons:
Properties - Clicking this will present you with the properties of the item in focus in the
Explorer
Insert.. - You may use this button to insert a group, an HTML page, an item or to show
a hidden page
Remove.. - You may use this button to delete a group, an HTML page, an item or to hide
a currently visible page.
Select All - Select All Groups for generation
Select None -Select No Groups for generation
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6.2 The Design Layout Area
The Design Layout Area is located in the right hand side of the designer. As you change
design properties you can instantly see the visual changes here. This preview is not
interactive, if you want to test you should move you mouse over the header until the
Page Layout changes to Test on My PC and then click.
You can access context sensitive pop up menus. By moving your mouse over the
preview. As you move over editable items, that dbQwik pop up menu indicator appears.
To display the pop up menu, click on the item.
6.3 Refreshing the Preview
When you are designing a web page, dbQwikSite displays a preview in the Page Layout
area which includes your design along with sample data. If you are designing using a
large database or a database over a remote connection, the refresh of the page can slow
substantially. You can change the Page data refresh mode to help speed your design.
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There are 3 refresh modes:
Automatic - will refresh data for each change as you make it.
Manual - will refresh data only when you click the Refresh button.
No Data - will display your layout with no data.
6.4 Page Groups
About Page Groups
A page group is a collection of pages that normally operate on a table or query. The
pages of the group by nature of being in the same group, interact with each other. They
form a functional unit. For example the Search Page affects what appears on the Data
Page, and the Delete Page deleted records listed on the data page.
Page groups are power design elements allowing you to create multiple sets of pages
that operate on a dataset and with each other. The page design for each page group is
independent, this can greatly help if you have pages operating against the same
datasets, but are secured differently or display different fields. For example, you may
want to have a product list page for the public that shows you products, pictures and
descriptions and you want a second page that only your staff can access that shows more
fields such as cost, supplier name and other private information. By creating two page
groups based on your Products table, you can create this type of web site, with "admin"
versus "public" areas.
Page groups can also be exported and imported between projects. This means that you
can share design between you own projects, or between developers. In a multi
developer environment, you can independently design groups and merge them into a
single project. Of course the groups being shared must access a common database
structure. You cannot design a group that works on your Recipe database and use this
group on your company accounting database. there would be no correlation of database
tables and fields.
Page Groups in the Designer
Page Groups appear that the highest level of the tree view in the explorer. They are
shown as a page icon with a little "G" (for "group") in it.Each Group has a check box
beside it. The check box indicates if this group is currently selected for you code
generation. You can speed code generation on larger projects, by unchecking the groups
that have already been generated or that you are not testing now.
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Page groups can be managed using the page group toolbar as well as by right clicking a
page group.
From left to Right
Properties: Display the properties dialog of the page group or the sub-item, whichever
is currently selected in the explorer.
Insert: Insert an object from the drop down menu. You can create new groups,
add new pages or new page items to a page.
Delete: Delete or hide object from drop down menu.
Uncheck Groups: Uncheck all groups (useful when testing projects with many groups,
code generate only the test groups which speeds code generation)
Check Groups: Checks all groups(useful for publishing to ensure all groups are
generated).
6.5 Creating Page Groups
There are several ways to create a new page group.
One of the most convenient is to right click on the explorer, and choose the Insert Group
option. This launches the create New Group Wizard.
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Groups can also be created through other actions, such as Importing Groups or the
Import Web Form Wizard.
6.6 Page Group Wizard
The new group wizard show automatically when you create a new group or perform other
actions that in turn require a new page group. It guides your through steps of getting
your pages setup and ready for design and testing. The
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6.7 dbQwikSite Page Types
The basic web building block use by dbQwikSIte is a web page. dbQwikSite provides you
with various types of web pages that you can assemble together in page groups to create
many different types of web applications.
Available web page types are:
Database Web Pages
Display Functions
Page Type Function
Data Page Lists Records
More Page Displays a Single record
Details Page Displays Detail (Child) records related to a selected
Record on the Data Page
Find Page Allows user to specify search conditions to filter data
shown on the Data Page
Record Manipulation pages
Page Type Function
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Add Page Adds a record into a database table
Copy Page Displays an existing record for edit and saves as a new
record
Update Page Displays a record for Edit and saves the changes in the
database
Delete Page Displays a record and permanently deletes the record
from the database
Import Page Imports a CSV file into a table. Accepts the file and
imports the data to its table. Reports errors to the web
browser.
Non- Database Pages
General Use Pages
Page Type Function
Email Page Merges record fields and user input to generate an email
message
HTML Pages Display Information that you design in an HTML editor,
not tied to any database records.
Control Panel Pages Provide Navigation between pages of proups
Email Results Dialog Allows visitors to input details as to the email destination
for a search result when the the visitor chooses to email
the results.
Email Reminder A page that shows when the user clicks on a "forgotten
password" link. Collects the user email address verifies
and sends a reminder email.
Ecommerce Pages
Page Type Function
Shopping Cart Page Allows visitors to add items to their shopping cart, and
view the item on this page.
Check Out Page Allows visitors to purchase the items in their shopping
cart.
6.8 Showing and Hiding Pages
Each Page Group can contain pages of different types. Rather than showing pages of
every type in every group, pages are only displayed as you need them. This helps by
displaying only those pages which are you are interested in for each page group.
You can access the show/hide page settings for a page group two ways.
By right clicking on the Page
Group to display the pop up
menu.
By Selecting a Group and Clicking the insert /
remove toolbar buttons.
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OR
You then are presented a corresponding selection list
Following the example below, you would check the pages you wished to show in the
selected page group.
6.9 Toolbars
A brief description of the tool bar buttons follows.
Tool Bar
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From left to Right
New Project Create a new dbQwikSite project, either a blank project, from a template
or using Gen Genie
Open Project Open an existing dbQwikSite project
Save Project Save the current dbQwikSite project
Deploy Web Pages Publish your web pages to your local host or publish and upload to
your web server
Show Help Show this dbQwikSite Help File
Service Manager Show the Web / Database Services Manager to start and stop
services
From left to Right
Import Group Import a group from another dbQwikSite project
Export Group Export a group from the current project to another dbQwikSite project
Copy Group Copy the selected group
Paste Group Paste the group currently help on the clipboard
Show Page Allows you to show pages that may be hidden
Hide Page Hide pages - they will not be shown on the explorer or on your generated
pages
From left to Right
Split The number of records to be shown per page
Records/Row The number of records to be shown per row
Secure The level of security that you want to assign to the currently selected page
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From left to Right
Preview Allows you to see an immediate preview of your dbQwikSite project in your
default web browser
Page Layout Allows you to assign predefined layouts to your web pages. Clicking this
will also allow you to arrange your records in a catalog fashion
Navigator Control the navigation bars at the top and bottom of your web pages
Frame Choose whether or not you would like frames on your web pages
Show Color Panel Opens the color panel which you can use to change the appearance
of your web pages
Show Table Panel Opens the table panel which you can use to format the table in which
your records are presented
Header From here you can modify your page header. You will be presented with the
HTML scripting of your header - You may modify it here or - click the "HTML Editor"
button which will open your header in the built in HTML editor which provides some
more functionality. Here you can modify the header using on a high level or by
changing the source code
Footer From here you can modify your page footer. You will be presented with the
HTM scripting of your footer - You may modify it here or - click the "HTML Editor"
button which will open your footer in the built in HTML editor which provides some
more functionality. Here you can modify the footer using on a high level or by
changing the source code
CSS Depending on the page that is in focus on the Explorer you will be presented with
its Properties dialog, allowing you to modify the CSS settings for that page.
HTML Editor Opens this page in HTML editor. Note: ONLY applies to pages which are
HTML page type.
Item Editor Clicking this button presents you with a grid of the page item properties of
the currently selected page. It allows you to change the settings of a number of page
items on one dialog
Dataset Editor Clicking this button presents you with a grid of the properties of the
data items of the currently selected page. It allows you to change the properties of a
complete dataset on one dialog
6.10 Page Settings Navigator
The Page Settings Navigator provides you with mini maps of your generated pages.
Clicking on the feature you want to activate will result in you being presented with the
program dialog for that feature. This is a great way to become familiar with the the
program by specifying your desired result.
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The Page Settings Navigator button is on the top right hand corner of your preview pane
1. Click on the Page Settings Navigator button.
You will be presented with the Page Settings Navigator dialog
2. Move your mouse over the area of the map of the feature you want to add and click
3. You will be presented with the relevant property dialog, from where you can make your desired
changes
6.11 Getting Things Done with Wizards
Wizards are not just for beginners. The wizards are a great way to get common tasks
completed simply and quickly.
You will find all the wizards available from the main menu
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Available Wizards Are:
Name Function
Project Wizard Sets up a new project from scratch
Security Wizard Applies security to existing web pages.
Ecommerce Wizards Sets up online shopping, payment, inventory, tax, shipping
charges and related settings
Deploy Wizard Assists you in moving your web site to a remote server.
Connection Wizard Helps you set up database connections from dbQwikSite
Database Wizard Helps you create and modify database tables.
Web Form to DB
Wizard
Creates a new Page Group, and database table from an HTML
Form.
6.12 Project Wizard
When creating a new project in dbQwikSite you will be presented with 4 options. You
may create your project in one of the following ways:
Project Wizard
A Blank Project
From a Design Template
Using Auto Generate Genie
Project wizard will walk you through all the necessary steps you need to open or create a
new dbQwikSite project.
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Open a Project
1. My Last Project: Open your most recent project
2. Another Project on my computer: Browse the project that is on your PC
Create New Project
1. Database Web Project: Create dbQwikSite project that is connected to database
2. dbQwikSite Design Template Project: Create a dbQwikSite project from ready made
template
The project wizard walks you through the process of creating a new project through a
series of steps. This topic will show you how to use the create a new database web
project.
Step 1: Open or Create a Project
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Step 2: Choose a Database or Create
The next step is to locate a database.
Here we have a number of choices
1. if you already have a database and have already defined a connection, you can simply
use this connection.
2. If you have a database but have not defined a connection you can select this option to
run the connection wizard.
3. If you do not have a database, you can use a dbQwik template which has an
associated database already.
4. You can create a new database.
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PPPPPPPP
We will use the Create New Database option in this example
Step 3: Create a Database
.
Simply choose the Help me create a dbQwikSite database and click the Next button
We then enter the name for our database.
The table builder dialog appears:
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The table builder is able to create tables from files (pictured above), using built in
templates, by designing or from ready a mySQL Script file.
You can use the built in templates to create tables based on a wide assortment of table
designs:
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You can use all the available methods in combination to create the tables you want to
include in your database.
Note: The database created is MS Access format, but you can use dbQwikSIte's X-Gen
technology to later deploy to MS Access, mySQL or MS SQL databases.
Step 4: Select Tables and Page Types
Once you have opened your database, you can now see all the available tables and Page
Types that you can generate for each table. You can check the combination that you
desire as well as adjust table names so that the transform to better web page names.
Step 5: Enter Site Settings
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You can now tell dbQwikSite about your host setting if you have the information
available. These setting will be used in your pages as default values that you can change
later. But if you know them now, enter them and it will save you the need to enter the
setting on individual pages later. You can also choose a default color theme for your site.
Step 6: Start Designing your Pages in the Designer
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See Also:
Database Wizard
Connection Wizard
6.13 Gen Genie
When creating a new project in dbQwikSite you will be presented with 4 options. You
may create your project in one of the following ways:
Project Wizard
A Blank Project
From a Design Template
Using Auto Generate Genie
This is how to access the Gen Genie
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The Auto Generate Genie (Gen Genie) presents you with lists of tables and settings
information.
Check your desired options and Gen Genie will create a set of tables according to your
selections.
1. Please select "Using Auto Generate Genie"
2. Click OK
Step 1 - Selecting Your Database
You will be presented with the "Select Database Connection" dialog.
You can select an existing connection, modify an existing connection or create a new
connection. You may also import from a MySQL script file.
1. Select an existing or create a new connection
2. Click OK
Note that you can now import the database using a MySQL script.
You will be presented with the "Gen Genie".
Step 2 - Selecting the Project Options
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All options will be automatically checked by default, and you will also be provided with suggested
"Friendly Names" for your database tables. You may configure your settings here, remembering that
changes do not have to be permanent - You can modify at any stage using the dbQwikSite designers.
Uncheck any tables that you do not require and set the access levels of any pages that need to be
secured.
You may also select your color scheme using the Gen Genie. If you do not find an existing color
scheme that is to your taste, you can customize an existing scheme and save it for future used by
clicking the button.
Please note the icons located at various points on the Gen Genie. Mousing over or clicking these
icons will provide you with information about the relevant topic
1. select in your options
2. Click on OK
Step 3 - Let dbQwikSite create your Web Site
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1. Sit back and let it all happen.
2. Your pages will be generated and appear in the designer
6.14 Item Multi Editor
The Item Multi Editor is accessed by clicking the button on the toolbar.
This will present you with a grid of the main properties of the page items of the page that
is currently selected.
Note: the button will be deactivated when no individual page is selected on the Explorer
From this one dialog, you are able to modify many settings, without having to access the
pop up menu of each individual page item. Anywhere on the dialog where more detail is
required, you will be brought to the relevant settings dialog.
Any modifications that you do make can be applied to the items only, to all items in the
group or even all items in your project.
The Multi Item Editor
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6.15 Data Field Multi Editor
The Dataset Multi-Editor is accessed by clicking the button on the toolbar.
This will present you with a grid of the main properties of the data items of the page that
is currently selected.
Note: the button will be deactivated when no individual page is selected on the Explorer
From this one dialog, you are able to modify many settings, without having to access the
pop up menu of each individual data item. Anywhere on the dialog where more detail is
required, you will be brought to the relevant settings dialog.
Any modifications that you do make can be applied to the data item only, all data items
on the page, all data items in the group, or even all items in the whole project.
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6.16 Project Settings in Global Group
It may be possible that you would like to have the same settings for a number of different page
groups, and pages within each group. You can use the Global Settings function to apply identical
Login Security, E-mail Settings, and Validation Setting to every page in your project.
Click on Global Group -> Setup
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To Set Global Security Settings:
1. Select Login Settings tab and you will be presented with the Login Settings dialog
3. Select your access model. (See User Identification and Authentication)
4. Select the source of your user accounts (See Login Pages)
To Set Global E-mail Settings:
1. Select E-mail Settings tab and you will be presented with the E-mail Settings dialog
2. Complete the e-mail settings as per your requirements (See Enabling a Data E-mail Page)
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To Set global Validation Settings:
1. Select Global Validation Settings tab and you will be presented with the Global Validation Settings
dialog
2. Click on Customize to Customizable Validation Events, where you can input your own JavaScript to
be executed during data validation.
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Your settings will be applied to all of your pages in all of your groups.
It is possible to have some pages that do not share these global settings
Pages Not Included in the Global Settings:
1. Locate the relevant page group on the Explorer
If the required page (E-mail/Login) is not shown, click on the Show Pages button ( )
- You will be presented with the Show Pages dialog.
- You should check the pages that you would like to be displayed on the Explorer
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2. Right click on the Login/E-mail page and select Properties from the pop up menu
3. On the properties dialog you will see a check box
OR
OR
Uncheck this box to configure individual settings for this page
6.17 Derived Fields
It is possible create new display fields based on combinations of other fields in your
database. Combine fields of fields and perform mathematical operations.
Creating a Derived Field:
Example:
Your product table may have a price Unit_Price and you want to know how much your
inventory is currently worth.
1. Select for example your Products file from the Database Tree and expand it
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2. Right Click on Items then then Click on Insert Item to bring up the Page Item
Properties Dialog.
3. Enter the for your new Field
4. Click on The Edit Value button to bring up the Edit Value Dialog
Using this screen you can build your derived field e.g. in this case the UnitsInStock times
the UnitPrice. Calculations need to be enclosed in curly brackets or braces for them to be
treated as a calculation rather than as text as shown in the example above.
5. Click on OK and the new field will appear as part of the page layout.
You can of course move and format any new fields just like the regular database fields.
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Note: In addition to math you can manipulate text database fields in a variety of ways,
including substring, to upper case, concatenate etc.
6.18 Site Navigation
dbQwikSite offers several features to assist in linking pages and navigating between
pages.
These include:
Navigation
buttons:
navigation buttons are inserted by dbQwikSite, depending on the
options that you have selected in your design. The control record
navigation, access to record functions, and page flow.
Site Menus Site menus can be generated using the Menus plug-in creating
dynamic drop-down menus for the groups and pages of your project.
Form flow Each data input form allows you to enter a destination to flow to on
either a user <back> action or the successful execution of the form.
In this way you can build chained forms for simple work flows.
Control Panels Control panels, are HTML pages with links to each page in a group,
these can be used as end user navigation or to access pages when
testing, without having to type in the urls of that page.
6.18.1 Site Menus
Site menus are menus that appear on your generated pages that allow your visitors to
access pages of your web site.
The site menus are generated from a plug-in. It creates a menu item for each check
group in the explorer and a sub menus item for each page in that group which user can
enter directly. Pages such as update are not added to menus because they require a
record to be identified before entering the page.
The generated files can be customized after you generate them, allowing you to adjust
menu captions and re-organize menus as best meets your needs. dbQwikSite Menu plug
in provides only the code generation step, to edit the generated files you need to use an
HTML or text editor.
Sections:
Auto Menus
Creating Menus
Customizing and Controlling Menus
Auto Menus
dbQwikSite supports the idea of "auto" menus. This means that you can define a menu
and have dbQwikSite automatically include it in every page.
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To enable Auto Menus:
Check the Auto Menus Option in your project settings.
Tools>Project Settings>Navigator Buttons
Run the menu plug-in as described bellow using the special name: "qs_menu" as your
base file name. qs_menu is a special name that the Auto Menu feature looks for as the
menu to act as the default menu.
Creating Site Menus
You can create as many menus as you like to include in pages of your site. For example,
public and administration pages can have independent navigation menus. Note that
there is only one "auto" menu when using the auto menu feature, if you are using
multiple menus in a single site, you will need to instruct dbQwikSite which pages use
which menus (read the Customizing Menus Section below).
To generate a dynamic navigation menus:
1. Check the groups in the Explorer that you want included in your Menus
2. Plug-Ins >Site Navigation Menu > Choose a Style...
Different plug-ins may have different dialogs. The base plug-in needs only a name
to use as the base file name for naming its output files. Note that the special
name "qs_menu" is the indication to dbQwikSite, that this menu is to be used as
the default menu when the auto menu feature is enabled.
You can use different names, however to will need to add tags into your pages to
tell dbQwikSite, where to place your navigators.
3. The plug in will generate your menu files and display a report in your web browser.
Customizing Site Menus
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Changing the Generated Menus
You can change the menus generated by dbQwikSite plug-ins. Different plug-ins may
have different levels of customization available. Normally you are able to change the
menu item text, and re-organize your menus, you can change the color and dimensions.
This can be done by modifying the Java Script file or the CSS file using a HTML or text
editor.
Java scripts are stored in a sub folder of your project folder. The Java Script folder is
named JS (for Java Script). If your menu used Cascading Style Sheets, the CSS file will
be found in the CSS sub folder.
Note: If you regenerate menus using the same file names you will overwrite any
customizations that you have done.
Generating Multiple Menus
You can generate different menus, for different purposes by checking the page groups in
the explorer prior to running the generation plug in. You must use a different name for
each menu to avoid overwriting each other. When using multiple menus you must
instruct dbQwikSite which menu to use on which page. This is done by embedding a
special HTML tag in your page header. More information on the tag follows.
Positioning Menus in your pages
If you wish to control the point in your page that the menu is inserted you can add this
tag to your page header:
<qsnavmenu name=qs_menu show=on />
Where: qsnavmenu is a special tag name that you insert as it appears here.
name is the base name of your java script menu when you generated it.
qs_menu is a special name used for auto menus.
Auto menus do not require that this tag appear in your page header, however for any
other custom menu you must add the tag to your header so that dbQwikSite knows you
want to display your menu on that page.
Showing and Hiding Menus
<qsnavmenu name=qs_menu show=on />
show=on/[off] this tells dbQwikSite whether to show the menu or not. While you may
initially say why would you ever turn show off, there are times where this is useful. For
examples, turn show off is the only way to suppress the display of menus on selected
pages when the auto-menu option is selected.
6.18.2 Button Navigation
dbQwikSite provides simple graphical navigation using the following buttons:
Previous Page Next Page
First Page Last Page
Top of Page Bottom of Page
Export to MS Word Export to MS Excel
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Export to CSV file. Export to XML
Export to Text file. Import Data
Copy the Record Copy
Delete Update
Add New Record
Send this page to a friend E-mail
Search Records Show all Records
Find More . . ..
Back to Control Panel Back to Site Control Panel
Back to Data Page Back to Shopping
Clear Your Cart View Cart
Buy Now
Log Out
You may change the icons displayed if you wish. You may change them individually or
you may select a set of icons to replace the existing icons, ensuring that the file names
are identical.
To Change Individual Image Icons:
1. Click on Tools > Project Settings
2. Click on the Navigation Buttons item
3. Click on the button the button that you would like to alter
4. You will be presented with a file chooser, you should locate the file you would like to
be used instead of the default.
5. Once you have selected the file you will see that the image has been replaced by your
chosen image.
If you are unhappy with your choice you can click on the Restore Defaults button
to reset the buttons
6. Click OK
To Map a Set of Navigator Button icons:
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1. Click on Tools > Project Settings
2. Click on the Navigation Buttons tab
3. Click
4. You will be presented with a file browser from which you should locate the folder that
contains the images that will replace the defaults.
PLEASE NOTE: file names for individual images must be identical to the default file name
for each icon.
6.19 Saving Your Web Pages
You normally do not need to save your web pages, instead you "deploy" them. If you
want to view a copy of your web pages, you can deploy them to a local folder. When you
deploy you can specify the scripting language that you wish to use for your pages, either
ASP or PHP as well as target database settings.
See Also
Deploying your Web Pages
6.20 Internal HTML Editor
dbQwikSite provides an integrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML
editor to allow you to create HTML web pages, record layouts and edit HTML segments of
your generated pages.
If you prefer to use your favorite HTML editor you can do so by setting it up an external
HTML Editor in dbQwikSite options.
You can access the HTML editor by:
Right clicking the page group where you want to
add a new HTML page:
OR In Dialogs where the HTML
Button appears:
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You will be presented with a dbQwikSite's HTML editor which will allow create and edit
HTML easily.
HTML Editor Tools
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The editor will allow you to design web pages as you would with similar editors.
Links to dbQwikSite Pages
An important feature of dbQwikSite's HTML editor that you will not find in other editors,
is the ability to insert links to pages in your dbQwikSite project.
To insert a link to a dbQwikSite page:
1. Choose the Link to QwikSite tab:
2. Select the text of graphic that will display as the hyperlink
3. Click the Link button
4. The selection dialog will appear allowing you to pick a dbQwikSite page from the
available page groups in your project.
HTML Segments
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dbQwikSite's HTML editor is also used for HTML "Segments" such as record layouts or
page headers, footers, and messages. In these cases you are not creating an
independent HTML page, rather you are using the editor to assist you to create a
segment of HTML that will be used inside another dbQwikSite page.
While all design options remain available, it may not make sense to use all features, such
as forms, in a record layout or in a error message. You can experiment how "far" you
can go with HTML in these situations, but we cannot guarantee that dbQwikSite will work
with every possible HTML feature that is possible to include using this editor.
6.21 External HTML Editor Setup
If you prefer, you can set up dbQwikSite to work with your favorite HTML editor rather
than the built-in HTML editor which is invoked when you edit an HTML page or HTML
fragment.
This allows you to work in your favorite HTML editor to edit dbQwikSite HTML. You can
integrate to most any 3rd party editors. Both Dreamweaver and FrontPage have been
tested with dbQwikSite.
To get dbQwikSite to work with your HTML editor:
Choose Tools> Options
The Options Dialog Appears
1. Choose the "Use my favorite HTML Editor" Option
2. Browse or paste in the path to your editor
3. Click OK
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6.22 Importing HTML
You can add HTML pages to your site, by importing pages you can then add link between
dbQwikSite generated pages and HTML pages.
To Import a HTML Page
In the explorer, right click the group that you want to add the HTML Page to.
Choose the Insert HTML Page option
The new HTML page dialog shows:
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If you want to create a new blank HTML page select the "Create new HTML page" option.
You can import an existing page. When you do this, dbQwikSite will try to preserve
links, images and formatting.
If you page has an "image" sub folder and a "css" subfolder you can optionally import
these by checking the corresponding check boxes. It is quite common for files to be
arranged in this hierarchy. If you have a different folder organization, you may want to
reorganize your folders and HTML page links before importing it, this way dbQwikSite can
ensure that the page is imported with the maximum compatibility.
You can assign a new name for your imported page if you desire. Check the "Rename
the file..." and enter a new name. If you do not enter a name, it will be imported using
the original file name.
by checking the "Edit this page.." option, the HTML will open the page immediately after
importing it.
6.23 Service Manager
You can start/stop/restart web server services and database services using our Service
Management.
You can access Service Management by clicking on Service Management button ,
which is located on left side of Tool bar.
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You will be given 4 options: All, Web Server Services, Database Services, and Web
Server Services and Database Services.
6.24 How to Get dbQwikStart Templates
dbQwikStart Templates are small business "starter packs". They include customizable
dbQwikStart Templates as well as simple databases. If you do not have a database
already created, or prefer to use a simpler database for your web site, dbQwikStart
Templates are a great way to get a head start in creating your on-line business.
dbQwikStart Templates are free to all registered users and are free in the dbQwikSite
Package. You can also download dbQwikStart Templates at www.dbqwiksite.com/
download.html. Feel free to try one of the dbQwikStart Templates for your business.
Many styles and types are provided. These include predefined databases for various
business types such as online bookstores, second hand car dealers, and so on.
If you want our professional designers to create a dbQwikStart template for your
business, please contact
Sales@dbqwiksite.com
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7 Testing on Your PC
While you are designing your interactive web site can test your pages in your browser.
dbQwikSite offers a powerful, on-the-fly PC testing feature. You can, at any time, click
the "test" button and test your pages right on you PC with no need to upload to your web
host to see your pages "in action". This section covers how to test on your PC.
Myths about Testing:
Myth: I must test using the same platform I plan to host on.
Fact: You can test using ASP, dbQwikWebServer and MS Access and later deploy to a
Linux server with PHP and mySQL. dbQwikSite's X-gen (cross generation) technology
makes this possible.
Myth: If I want to test PHP script I have to install Apache, mySQL, PHP and more!
Truth: If you have IIS Web Server installed you can install PHP support for IIS. If
however you are using dbQwikWebServer, then it cannot run PHP and you will need to
install a web server which which can accept a PHP Script Support.
Myth: Apache, MySQL and PHP require Linux (UNIX).
Truth: Apache, MySQL and PHP all have free versions available for download that will
run on windows PC.
7.1 Requirements for PC Testing
Requirements for testing will vary depending if you use the default testing facilities or if
you choose to elect for a more specialized test environment.
Standard Testing Facility
dbQwikSite Standard testing facility installs with dbQwikSite, if you accept the standard
testing facility, there are no additional requirements for you to be able to test.
By default dbQwikSite will generate ASP code on your PC.
Note: You can still deploy PHP even if you are testing with ASP
dbQwikSite comes with its own dbQwikWebServer that will start automatically if no
other web server is currently running.
dbQwikSite will use the same database connection that you are using for design to test
your pages.
Note: If you have IIS Server installed it uses robust security intended to
safeguard public web servers, when testing your PC this can be a real pain. You
can manually configure security or you can bypass IIS and use dbQwikWebServer.
To bypass IIS server you can either stop the service using dbQwikSIte Service
Manager or You can change the Port Setting for your testing using the Port
Number setting shown below.
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Specialized Test Environments
Some Advanced users may elect to use non-standard test environment. The most likely
reason for this is that you want to test PHP scripting directly on your PC. This is possible,
but you then must then ensure that you have a configuration on your PC that supports
PHP. Neither IIS or dbQwikWebServer support PHP natively, but you can download PHP
for IIS server.
If you do want to test in environment that is mirroring Linux / Apache / PHP and MySQL
you can do this. You must first ensure that you have installed and configured all these
programs on your PC. There is an open source group which bundles all the components
into compatible single install packages. If you want to install all these programs, you
may find it much easier to download a single install, rather than to go to the individual
sites. The single installs are available at http://www.appservnetwork.com/
If you choose to use a specialized test environment, you should adjust your local settings
(shown above) to agree with your particular set up.
Testing ASP.net
You can generate ASP.net by checking the Generate ASP.net Option when generating
ASP. ASP.net requires that you have IIS server installed and that you have installed .net
framework on your PC.
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ASP.net code generations is currently in BETA release. All major functions have
been tested and appear to work. If you encounter any problems please
report these to Support@TheDevShop.com
IIS server is part of windows XP and Vista however it is not installed by default. You may
have to install IIS server from your Windows CD if it has not been installed yet.
Windows Vista new security features, can cause IIS not to run your pages. In this event
your will see a message as follows:
This can be solved by changing security settings, or launching dbQwikSite with
administrator privileges.
To modify security settings for IIS secured folders:
The DBQwikSite sub-folder is already created at install time by the installer. The only requirement is
only to set the correct rights on that folder.
Locate the folder: C:\Inetpub\wwrwroot\DBQwikSite in the windows explorer. Right click to view its
properties.
Select the Security Tab
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Click on EDIT to change settings:
Select the Users group and click on Full Control
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2. Select the Properties from its popup menu, the Page Setting window will appear
3. In this case click on No Record Found Message in the Menu bringing up the HTML
screen.
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4. Edit the message
5. Click on OK to save or Cancel to exit without changes
2. Select the Properties from its popup menu, the Page Setting window will appear
3. Click on the return message shown in the menu bringing up the HTML screen.
4. Edit the message and then click on OK to save.
Localizing Program Controlled Text
dbQwikSite gives you access to all the text, labels, and messages that it uses when
generating pages. This will allow you to localize/translate your web site to use your
preferred language or verbiage.
1.
2. On the Localization Screen you can then modify the values under the Custom
heading to the values or language that you require.
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Note: You can choose whether to apply this localization to a group or across your whole
project.
Localizing Data Values
This is under the control of the database handler so you will need to make changes in
your database to handle or modify the values in the data itself.
Note: Remember that dbQwikSite shows data from your database, plus it uses your
database field names as default labels. You may need to adjust label names and ensure
that your data content is already in the local language of your choice.
See Also:
General
Messages
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18.2 Using a Language File
dbQwikSite has access to a number of pre localized language sets for the application that
can be imported and used right away. You can also create your own localization set and
and save this for use in other projects.
Using a Localization File
1. choose Tools > Localization from the main menu.
2. On the Localization Screen click on to import a localized file
or the Export button below it to save your localizations for use in another project.
Note: You can find localization files for a number of languages www.dbqwiksite.com/
downloads.html
18.3 Localizing Data Content
Many values that display on your web pages are read from your database. For example
you may have product names and descriptions in your database that are shown on your
dbQwikSite pages. These are value from your database. If these values are not in the
language that you have selected it is because the value in the database needs to be
localized. This is not a function of dbQwikSite, but you may be able to use dbQwikSite
generate Edit Pages to allow you to change your database values.
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19 Extending dbQwikSite
Beginning in version 5.0 dbQwikSite offers an extendible architecture allowing 3rd party
developers to
Access information in dbQwikSite project files
Extend program functionality
Integrate dbQwikSite information in their applications
This section covers the topic of extending dbQwikSite and the available means for 3rd
party developers to integrate to dbQwikSite.
19.1 Project XML Repository
In version 5.0 and above dbQwikSite stores project information in XML file. You can find
the XML file located in your project folder.
The XML can be used to read information about your project. It is also the basis for plug
in reports.
The XML Schema is available to interested parties from Support@TheDevShop.com
Warning: Do not modify the XML file. Modification to this file may cause your
project to become unusable.
19.2 Creating Integrated Reports
dbQwikSite features a plug-in architecture for project reports.
Reports can be designed using XML Style Sheets (XSL) and XML Transformations (XLT)
against the project XML. dbQwikSite does not provide an facilities for development of
XLS or XLT, for this report developers need 3rd party tools.
Designing Project Reports
Normally you will use XML design tools to create your XLS outside of dbQwikSite. Once
you are happy with your report design, you can integrate it into dbQwikSite so that it
appears in the reports menus and can be run from inside dbQwikSite.
Integrating Project Reports
To integrate a report into dbQwikSite, you must complete 2 steps. Firstly you must store
your xsl report file in the Integration folder of dbQwikSite, and you must define an XML
report descriptor for dbQwikSite.
1) Put your report xsl into the integration folder.
Reports are kept in:
[install directory]\Integration\Reports
most often this is C:\Program Files\dbQwikSite 4.2\Integration\Reports
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Just add your xsl file into this folder
2) Define XML Description File.
dbQwikSite loads reports using instructions found in an XML file. This file must be
named with a ".xrep" extension. Normally you would name your file
REPORT_NAME.xrep. The easiest way to create this file is to copy an existing .
xrep
and modify it to contain the details of your report. Below is an explanation of the
format and contents of the .xrep file.
.xrep file
Legend: <-- Green Instructions = things you should change
<-- Blue Instructions = info, no need to change
<-- Red Instructions = Warnings, don't change.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<plugin>
<identification>
<title>Group Pages</title> <-- put your report name here
<name>QS_Groups_Page_Report</name> <-- put your report name here
<version>1.0</version> <-- put your report version here
<status>enabled</status> <-- "enabled" will load in QS
<description>Reports of all visible Pages in a all Groups"
</description> <-- description as you please, no limit, not shown anywhere
</identification>
<categories>
<category>
<name>Integration</name> <-- Don't Change
</category>
</categories>
<menus>
<menu>
<anchormenuname>mnuReports</anchormenuname> <-- Recommended
<anchorposition>child</anchorposition> <-- Recommended
<caption>Project Pages With Their Datasets...</caption> <-- Caption to show in menu item to run report
<path></path> <-- optional submenu path eg submenu1|submenu2|...
<bitmap>imagefilename.bmp</bitmap> <-- menu item icon. Future Use.
<hint>All visible Pages in your project</hint> <-- Help hint, shown in QS Status bar
<helpcontext>0</helpcontext> <-- Future Use.
<contextenabled>PROJECT_OPENED</contextenabled> <-- Future Use.
</menu>
</menus>
<definition>
<sourcedata>PROJECT</sourcedata> <-- Don't Change
<xpathinit preprocess="TRUE" source='cdata'></xpathinit> <-- Don't Change. Future Use.
<xquery preprocess="TRUE" source='file'></xquery> <-- Don't Change. Future Use.
<xpath preprocess="TRUE" source='cdata'></xpath> <-- Don't Change. Future Use.
<xsl source='file'>QS_Groups_Page_Report.xsl</xsl> <--file name of xsl file that defines the report (no path allowed)
<xsloutput>QS_Groups_Page_Report.htm</xsloutput> <-- name of the output HTML file name (required)
<runtime type="built-in" call-convention="DOM"> <-- Don't Change
<library>built-in</library> <-- Don't Change
<function>xslreport</function> <-- Don't Change
</runtime>
</definition>
</plugin>
Part
XX
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20 About TheDevShop
20.1 About TheDevShop
TheDevShop is a Canadian owned and managed software company with our own
products and outsourcing services. The company was established in 2000 and is located
in Bangkok, Thailand.
Our aim is to provide top quality products and services.
We develop our own products such as dbQwikEdit and dbQwikSite. These products are
targeted for use by both novices and professionals alike. Our products are distributed
mainly via the internet, but also directly through distributors in some countries.
We have special expertise in a large range of technologies and can provide custom
software solutions supporting a wide range of business and technical applications..
To learn more about TheDevShop, our products and services please:
Browse Us:
www.TheDevShop.com
Email Us:
Sales@TheDevShop.com
Call us at:
+66 2 664-7252
Mail Us:
TheDevShop Ltd.
22nd Floor, Unit 22/6
Emporium Tower
622 Sukhumvit 24
Bangkok, Thailand
10110
20.2 How to Get Professional Services from dbQwikSite Design
Factory
dbQwikSite's Design Factory provides a wide range of web building
support services. Our graphics department can design logos,create corporate color
schemes, design banners, buttons, and flash animations. Professional graphics will give
your web site a polished appearance. Our technical design team, and design databases,
dbQwikStart business templates, customize your dbQwikSite project or design complete
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web sites independent of dbQwikSite.
If you need help dbQwikSite Design Factory is here to help you by providing professional
services at a reasonable rate.
Find out more about our services by contacting Design@dbQwikSite.com
20.3 Getting Support
This help document contains a wealth of information relating to the features and
functions of dbQwikSite. You will find many answers to your questions in this document.
Online Knowledge Base and Issue Tracking system.
You can search existing support questions and answers as well as post and track your
own support issues.
Visit our online Knowledge Base at www.dbQwikSite.com
You can submit questions via the support page of dbQwikSite http://www.dbqwikSite.
com
We do recommend that you do submit issues to the on-line knowledge base to take full
advantage of the issue tracking mechanisms.
Tutorials
We have created a tutorial library which is available on-line at www.dbQwikSite.com
E-mail
We appreciate your email questions for support at: Support@dbqwiksite.com Or you can
use postal mail or telephone as alternative means of contact.
Available Services
Our Design Factory has designers, graphic artists, database experts and programmers to
assist you with your web site development. Visit our services pages, found at www.
dbQwikSite.com
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Index
- A -
ADO
Connections 60
Application Flow 161
ASP 149
ASP.net 149
- B -
Buttons 189
- C -
Cascade Style Sheets 158
Category Filtering 283
Color Theme
Saving Custom Themes 202
Color Themes 198
CSS 204
Customizing 200
Selecting 198
Colors
Highlight Row 202
Hover Row 202
Comma Separator 230
Common Page Options 157
Application Flow Control 161
Cascade Style Sheets 158
Color Themes 158
CSS 158
Footers 158
General 157
Headers 158
Messages 159
Record Layouts 160
Return Flow Processing 161
Security Level 162
User Messages 159
Concatonating Fields 228
Connecting to a Database 53, 59
Connection Wizard 53
Controls
Date Picker 266
Drop Down from Database 222, 255
Drop Down Lists 278
Drop Down, Dynamic 222, 255
Drop Down, Static 220, 253
File Upload 274
Linking Pick Lists 280
Page Item as Controls 250
Parent / Child Pick Lists 280
Pick List from Database 222, 255
Pick List, Dynamic 222, 255
Pick List, Static 220, 253
Pick Lists 278
Validating input 281
CSS 158
Importing 192
Using Your Own 192
- D -
Data List Page
Options 165
Data Validation 280
Dataaset
Selecting Tables 82
Database 39, 42
ADO Connections 60
Automatic Page Generation 126
Connecting 59
Connecting MySQL 63
Connection 54
Creating a New Database 70
Editing Tables 47
Eliminating Duplicate Records 87
Excel as a Database 62
Filtering Records 85
Help 47
Import MySQL Script 66, 78
Joining Tables 83
Managers 39
ODBC Connections 56
Overview 47
Previewing Selected Data 88
Reading 59
Starting/Stopping 146
Table Columns - Adding 48
Table Columns - Changing 49, 50
Table Keys - Changing 51
Index
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Database 39, 42
Tips 89
Using 59
Viewing SQL 88
Where Clause 85
Wizard 54, 71
Working With 47
Database Records
Query 81
Selecting Fields 82
Selecting Records 81
Selecting Tables 82
Visual Query Builder 81
Database Tables
Adding 47
Changing 47
Columns 47
Datatype 47
Dropping 47
Indexes 47
Optionality 47
Primary Key 47
Renaming 47
Database Web Sites
Components 39
Elements 39
Introduction 39
Database Webs
Architecture 44
Overview 44
Databases
Accessing Existing Databases 53
Databese Records
Working With 80
Dataset
Building a Record Set 81
Calculated Fields 135
Choosing Fields 82
Editor 130
Eliminating Duplicate Records 87
Field Functions 135
Filtering Records 85
Joining Tables 83
Previewing Selected Data 88
Properties 130
Query 81
Sorting with SQL 86
Viewing SQL 88
Dates 183, 219
dbQwikStart Templates 147
Using 194
Decimal Places 230
Deploying
Data 350
FTP 347
Integrating with Site 349
Multi-Project Sites 101
Pages 343
Server Session Variables 349
Server Settings 347
Your Pages 339
Deploying Sites
Databases 89
Designer
Design Preview 109
Explorer 107
Page Preview 109
Page Types 113
Tool Bars 115
Dreamweaver 144
Drill Down Display 179
Drop Down Lists
Linking 259
- E -
Ecommerce
Enabling Shopping Cart 311, 316
New Features in 4.1 304
Online Shopping 311, 316
Overview 304
Paypal 313
Shopping Cart 309, 312
Shopping Cart Checkout 301, 315
Shopping Cert 311
Wizard 317
Editions 24
Editors
Database Table Editor 47
Emailing
A Single Record 333
Saving a Copy in Database 329
Search Results 328, 331
dbQwikSite Help 368
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
- F -
Features 23
ECommerce Enhancements 304
List 26
New Features 304
New Features Highlights 23
New in 4.0 37
New in 4.1 34
New in 4.2 33
New in 5.0 30
New in 5.1 29
New in 5.2 23, 28
Flow
On Return 276
On Submit 276
Format
Page General Setting 184
Records per Row 216
Formatting
Adding Tesxt to Data Values 192
Numeric Fields 230
Page Item Heading 236
Page Item Prompts 236
Substituting Images for Field Values 235
Formatting Data
Dates 183, 219
Formatting Tables
Borders 194
Frontpage 144
FTP 347
Full details on Vista Support 29, 30
- G -
Global Settings 131
Group
Banner 185
Header 185
Groups 110
- H -
Help 7, 107
Host Computer
UNIX 39
Windows 39
Host Server
Compatibility 40
Operating System 40
How to Format Page Items
Replacing fields with Text 231
How to Show Images from Files 103
HTML 144
Control Panels 177, 252
Importing Pages 180
Pages 180
HTML Editor 141, 144
- I -
IDE 107
Explorer 107
Tool Bars 115
Images
Sizing 241
Input Forms
Data Validation 271
Edits 271
- L -
Language 355
Layout
Custom 214
Leading Zeros 230
Localizing 355
Data 359
Language Files 359
Tasks 356
- M -
Maintaining Logins
Creating Database User Accounts 296
Master/Detail 179
Menus 137, 189
More 39
mySQL
Connecting to 63
Importing to dbQwikSite 66, 78
Using 63
mySQL exports and importing 71
Index
369
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
- N -
Navigation
Buttons 139
Control Panels 177, 252
Navigator 189
- O -
ODBC
Connections 56
On-Line Database
Adding Records 243
Copying a Record 246
Deleting a Record 245
Edit a Record 243
Import 247
Listing Records 164
Loading 247
Page Types 113
Records 247
Removing a Record 245
Saving Copies of Emails 333
Searching 168
Shopping 301, 315
Shopping Cart 309, 312
Update a Record 243
Viewing (Master/) Details 179
Viewing a Single Record 178
Viewing Child Records 179
- P -
Page
Appearance 183
Back Ground 190
Background Image 184
Banner 185
Character Set 184
Descriptiom 184
Font 184, 191
Footer 187
Header 185
Index Frame 196
Keywords 184
Layout Style 197, 212
Navigator 189
Title 184
Page Appearance
Columns of Records 213
Image Sizing 241
Picture Sizing 241
Page Controld
Overview 250
Page Controls
Changing Default Page Flow 276
Check Boxes 226
Export to File 269
Hyperlinks - Dynamic 262
Hyperlinks - Static 264
Hyperlinks from Field Values 262
Linking to Scripts 251
Links to Scripts and CGIs 270
Radio Buttons 224, 258
Page Groups 110
Page Items
Adding Formatting Characters 217
Calculated Items 135
Database Field Functions 135
Displaying Images 238
Editor 129
Headings 236
Merging Fields 228
Moving 217
Multiple Fields in 228
Prompts 236
Properties 129
Reordering 217
Page Layout
Refreshing 109
Selecting 209
Page Layouts
Overview 207
Pages
Add 243
Auto Tiltle Feature 189
Check Out 301, 315
Clone Record 246
Control Panels 177, 252
Controling Record Count 212
Copy Record 246
Customizing Generated Pages 346
Data 164
Data (List) Page 331
dbQwikSite Help 370
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Pages
Data List 164
Delete 245
Desing Preview 109
Detail 179
Edit 243
EMail Search Results 328
Email Single Record 333
Find 168
HTML 180
HTML- Editiing 141
Master / Detail 179
More 178
Navigation 137
Password Retrival 300
Record List 164
Record View 178
Search 168
Search Page 331
Shopping Cart 301, 309, 312, 315
Update 243
Parent/Child 179
Pick Lists
Linking 259
Pictures 238
Sizing 241
Preview
Refreshing 109
Program
About 3
Activatiing 5
Buying 5
Editions 4
IDE 107
Installing 5
Licensing 5
Main Window 107
Registering 5
Versions 4
Project
Settings 131
Templates 147
Wizard 119
Projects
Multi-Project Sites 101
Supplied Samples 100
Publishing 339
Data 350
Integrating to Site 349
Pages 343
Server Session Variables 349
Server Settings 347
- Q -
Quick Start 7
- R -
Reading Data 53, 59
Record Layout
Designer 205, 207
Reports
.xrep 361
Consistency Check 326
Creating 361
Design-Time Links 326
External HTML Changes 326
Page Items 326
Project 361
Project Pages and SQL 326
xsl 361
Requirements 149
- S -
Saving Web Pages 141
Script Languages
ASP 39
PHP 39
Scripts
ASP 41
PHP 41
Search
Column Layout Style 213
Search Page
Search Overview 169
Security
Database Accounts 297
Levels 290
Limiting User to Own Records 292
Login Pages 290
Models 286
Overriiding Global Settings 292
Overview 286
Index
371
2007 TheDevShop Ltd.
Security
Password Retrival 300
User Account Information Sources 291
Users 293
Using Static Accounts 295
Wizard 287
Server
Compatibility 40
Compatibility Chart 351
Operating System 40
Settings
Finding 117
Global 131
Project 131
Showing Images 238
Site
Banner 185
Header 185
SMTP Services 39
SQL
Sorting Data 86
Support
Getting 365
- T -
Testing 149
Local with PHP/mySQL 69
On Your PC 154
TheDevShop
About 364
Professional Services 364
Who Is 364
Tool Bars 115
Translating 355
Data 359
- U -
UNIX 40
User Accounts 291
User Messages 159
- V -
Vista 17
Visual Query Builder
Building a database Query 81
Eliminating Duplicate Records 87
Filtering Records 85
Joining Tables 83
Previwing Selected Data 88
Selecting Columns 82
Selecting Fields 82
Selecting Tables 82
Viewing SQL 88
- W -
Web Host
Configuration 338
Setup 338
Trouble Shooting 338
Web Server 39
Apache 41
dbQwikWebServer 41
IIS 41
Starting Stopping 146
Windows 40
Wizard
Database 71
Database Connection 54
Deploy 337
Ecommerce 317
Gen-Genie 126
Project 119
Publish 337
Security 287
Shopping 317
Wizards
Overview 118
Using 118
- X -
X-Gen
Compatibility Chart 351
Compatibility Matrix 351
HelpAndManual_unregistered_evaluation_copy