_____________________________________________________________________ THE ARANEUS WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM Distribution Version 3.01 August, 30 1999 _____________________________________________________________________ --- Copyright and Disclaimer --- ********************************************************************** * * * Copyright (c) 1997,1998 * * Araneus Group and Department of "Informatica ed Automazione", * * University "Roma Tre", Rome, ITALY. * * * * All Rights Reserved. * * * * Permission to use, copy, and distribute this software and its * * documentation for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes and without fee is * * hereby granted provided that this copyright notice appears in * * all copies. * * * * THE AUTHORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE * * SUITABILITY OF THE SOFTWARE, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING * * BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, * * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE AUTHOR * * SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A * * RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS * * DERIVATIVES. * * * ********************************************************************** --- Contents --- This distribution contains the ARANEUS Web-Site Development System, a system for developing data-intensizve HTML and XML sites based on a relational database. The system also has a companion methodology for Web site design, whose documentation is also included in this distribution. This package is part of a larger system, called the "ARANEUS Web-Base Management System", which also includes tools for wrapping and querying Web sites.All material (especially the manuals) is still in the beta-testing phase. In case you find bugs or mistakes, please be forgiving and notify the following address: araneus@difa.unibas.it For further details about the ARANEUS project, and a list of on-line publications, please refer to our Web sites, at URLs: http://www.dia.uniroma3.it/Araneus http://www.difa.unibas.it/Araneus --- Changes --- -- in version 3.01 A bug in the generation of XSL stylesheets for the home page of a site has been fixed. The database and the icons for the sample sites have been changed. -- in version 3.0 The system now supports transparent generation of both plain HTML code and XML code with XSL stylesheets. -- in version 2.0 The packages are now compatible both with Java 1 (JDK 1.1.x) and with Java 2 (JDK 1.2). Previous versions of this distribution are compatible with Java 1 only. --- Installation --- NOTE: If you have installed a previous version of this distribution package, please remove all files before installing this new version. To run the system you need a Java runtime engine (JDK v.1.1.x or JDK 1.2), and an ODBC driver installed on your computer. This distribution is primarily conceived for Windows'95/WindowsNT, but the system-engine is pure-Java, and so it can be easily used on any Java-enabled platform. To install the software, simply unzip file "araneusWBMS.zip". Once you have unzipped the file, it will create several directories on your target drive, as follows: Directory of araneusWSDS README.TXT SHELL.BAT DOCUMENT PENELOPE SHELL TELEMACO DBMS DOCS SITES - README.TXT this file; - SHELL.BAT batch file needed to run the system's commands; this shell is completely text-based, and therefore not very fancy, but it is robust, reliable and gives access to all system functionalities with very low memory requirements; - SHELL java package containing the text shell; - PENELOPE, TELEMACO, DBMS, DOCUMENT java packages containing the system code, as follows: - PENELOPE : handles the site logical structure; It implements the nested relational algebra for hypertext generation; - TELEMACO : handles the site presentation; - DBMS : handles the data management part, i.e., all communication with the database; - DOCUMENT : implements the Editor language for text file manipulation; - DOCS contains several documents: - a technical report describing the Araneus Web Site Design Methodology, in ps format (methodology.ps); - the manuals in directory MANUALS; all manuals are in Microsoft Word'97 and postscript format; there are three different manuals you should read in order to be able to run the system; we suggest that you read them in the following order: 1. a preliminary Penelope Reference Manual (PenelopeManual.xxx); 2. a preliminary Telemaco Reference Manual (TelemacoManual.xxx); 3. the system's User Manual(UserManual.xxx); this describes the site creation process and the use of the shell; - SITES two alternative versions of a simple department Web site, in directories DEPT1 and DEPT2, with the associated database in directory DATABASE (department.mdb in Access'97 format), icons and styles. **************************NOTE************************** Before running the system on these sites, please read the user manual and make sure you have registered the database as an ODBC data source named "department". **************************NOTE************************** --- More Examples --- Some examples of real-life sites developed using the system can be found at URLS: - http://www.ing.unibas.it (in Italian) see http://www.ing.unibas.it/WebMasterP/ for some documentation on the site development process; - http://www.difa.unibas.it (partly in Italian) see http://www.difa.unibas.it/EWebMasterP/ for some documentation on the site development process. - http://www.difa.unibas.it/poptmp/ (in Italian) see http://www.difa.unibas.it/poptmp/WebMasterP/ for some documentation on the site development process. --- Known Bugs --- We have experienced several bugs, apparently related to the use of the ODBC driver. First, it seems to be impossible to reopen a connection to the same database several times in a Java session. This forced us to write the code in such a way that every command that requires database access is executed in a dedicated Java session, which is closed right afterwards. Also, we know that the Access ODBC driver does not compact the database after a table has been removed. Therefore, due to temporary table creation and deletion, the database size tends to grow. We suggest to periodically check the databases used for site generation and compact them. For Access databases, this can be done using the "Compact Database" command. --- Help --- Feel free to contact us at the following address for bugs, comments, or feedback about the system: araneus@difa.unibas.it