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CSC 112 - Lesson 6 Notes

Features

The site that we created in class has several features:

Search engine - we used the search engine script that from Matt Wright that was installed in the server by our software. If you wish to set up a more comprehensive searchengine many are avaliable. We learned in this class how to set up simple perl scripts so installing one on your site should be painless. I like the search script at Extropia.com. I have used it on several of my sites in the past and have found it very configurable.

Database - we used the database installed on the server to create a database generated list of products and ordering mechanism. We also learned how to use this simple database to generate other types of database generated pages.

The database program can be accessed at:
http://www.students.modemswitch.com/database/

Documentation and sample code are avaliable.

Use the students login and password to enter.

Shopping Cart - we set up a working ecommerce site were products can be purchased securely online. The shopping cart documentation and features can be found on:
http://www.students.modemswitch.com/admin/

Autoresponders - we configured autoresponders to automatically respond with a custom message when a an email has been set to predefined email addresses.

Email aliasing - We aliased email addresses on the student server to our personal email addresses.

Header and Footer files - Header and Footer files were used in both the shopping cart and the database program. We simply cut the page into two pieces, one for the header and one for the footer. This allows us to keep a consistent theme throughout the site.

Other Features

Updatable Pages - we learned how to create simple updatable pages that read and write to a text file in order to update portions of the page. Although I currently do not have an updatable page on the sample class site, nothing is stopping you from adding one.

Tracking Software

We discussed and looked at several tracking software programs. We looked at statistics are on faxswitch.com on the server program plus the axs.pl program.

We also discussed using environmental variables in our hidden form tags to track ip addresses and browser type, etc.