Preface

This document describes a tool called WDB, which is an interface between the World Wide Web and SQL based relational databases.

WDB was initially written at the Space Telescope - European Coordinating Facility, to make the science data archive of observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope available to the European astronomers.

WDB allowed the ST-ECF to make a huge database, like the HST archive, available to a large number of users with relatively little effort. without having to worry about porting - or even writing - client software.

WDB has been available on the Internet as free software since September 1994, and are now being used by research institutes and commercial sites all over the world. The WDB mailing list counts more than 130 different sites, and the software has been downloaded by a lot more.

WDB has a World Wide Web homepage at 'http://www.dtv.dk/%7Ebfr/wdb/', where the WDB script, all documentation, news and updates always are available. The WDB software is provided as free software, but if you decide to use WDB a postcard or an email is appreciated. Also, I'm maintaining an e-mail mailing list for announcements of new versions etc., please see the WDB homepage on how to subscribe, or mail me at bfr@dtv.dk.

WDB was developed while I worked at the ST-ECF. Today I have moved back to Denmark and started as an independant Internet/WWW consultant. You are welcome to contact me at the following addresss :

B.F.Consult
Bo Frese Rasmussen
Neergårdsparken 17. 2.tv.
DK-4000 Roskilde
DENMARK

Phone: +45 46 35 77 56
Email: bfr@dtv.dk

However please remember that WDB is unsuportet software. I always appreciate feedback, comments, bug-reports etc. - But unfortunately I can not promise to reply to all the mail I get regarding WDB, or give free assistance in configuring it to your local setup - I have to make a living too ...

WDB version 1.4 will probably be the last version of WDB in it's current shape. I'm planing to do a new verions which will be re-written from scratch. It will be written in Perl5 or Java (or more likely : a mix of the two) - using object oriented techniques to improve maintainability, and extendability. This new version of WDB will include insert/update/delete capabilities - with proper access control, easier customization of the resulting HTML, better performance, and much much more.....