Lesson 11

Linux / Apache / GT.M / Web Application Lesson 11.

All the little pieces that we need to build our MUMPS / VISTA web pages have been introduced in previous lessons.

As we continue, I will be adding in a few more pieces to round out the project.

Another Disclaimer: Before you look at the demo web page and code, please remember that I am a teacher and that my code is for training and may not be the best and greatest code. The code is designed to spur the imagination of the reader to further develop the code and applications.

While you are welcome to cut and paste this code and any of the code included in these lessons, you take total responsibility.

I apologize for the temporary switch in language and database. The following demo is written using ASP (active server pages) with a Microsoft Access database. I haven't yet been able to find a web server that will load GT.M on their linux box.

The following link will take you to a demo of the user interface that we are going to build for our GT.M / VISTA Library web application.

http://www.doggiedudes.com/fscc/index.asp

The code can be viewed by looking at or downloading the following Adobe Acrobat file.

http://www.doggiedudes.com/fscc/fbudget.pdf

You are welcome to play nicely with the application. Meaning that you can add budget and expense catagories and record budgeted expenses and income, and actuals. As you are adding data, you can take a look at a few reports that I have developed.

The process generally starts from the right, where you add categories for income and expense. The two buttons under each category are ADD for adding an item, and DEV to delete/edit/view a category.

The code is made up of two program files.

The index.asp program is just a front end program that defines what database to use and what image to use for the splash screen. This routine calls a include file where all the real code lives.

The fbudget.inc file is where all the program code really is. There are all the functions used to run the application.

This two part method of programing allows me to have a single include program. I can have many index pages using the same include program and looking at different databases.

In this specific usage of the family budget application, in order to add another family on to my server, I just have to copy a empty database and the index.asp file into their own directory. Make changes to the index.asp file to use the correct database and whatever cute little picture that they want.

If I have 50 family budgets running on a single server, I can make changes, corrections, and additions to a single include file and the changes are available to all familys.

The application web page, is continually calling it's self with different parameters used to determine which functions to run. The page has a look and feel like a two frame page, but the whole page is rewritten each time. It is a single page. This is my first attempt at trying a section 508 compliant web page.

Section 508 is written to foster the creation of applications that are readable by individuals with disabilities. Section 508 has suggestions of how to develop applications and says that the best way to have the web page tested is to ask an individual with a disability to test it. My page hasn't been evaluated yet.

In future lessons we will go back to GT.M / VISTA to work on our library application with the look and feel of the family budget application.