WEB-based query processing in a database course project

Abstract

One of the prominent uses of WWW has been WEB-based querying of databases. Search sites such as Yahoo and Infoseek present the WWW user with a form to be filled in with a query and return the results of the search. WEB forms are also being increasingly used for interaction with database management systems. One key element of the Intranet environment is the use of WEB-based facilities for query processing.In our undergraduate database course project, we decided to not only have the students design and implement relations in a relational database management system, but also provide a WEB-based facility that allows for fairly complex query processing. The actual data was the entire catalog (12,000 holdings) of the Department of Business Management's Library. The students had to first design the appropriate normalized relations and then load the data into a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). We used PostgreSQL as the RDBMS [1]. The students then designed WEB forms that allowed a user to query the library database using a Web browser. The user could specify simple and complex queries. The students used PHP [2], a public domain tool, to embed SQL queries into ordinary HTML form documents. This avoided the use of CGI scripts or Java applets, thus making the programming task much simpler.This paper presents details of the mechanics of the student project, examples from the students' submissions, and concluding remarks that highlight the benefits of WEB-based query processing.