BorlandTalk.com Borland discussion newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  What is the best way to do this?          BorlandTalk.com Forum Index -> Delphi Internet Winsock View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Lorne Guest Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:34 pm    Post subject: What is the best way to do this? I want to write a program so that users go to a web site and they can request to see data that is stored on a database that is stored on the web server. This will be on a commercial ISP and not a dedicated corporate server. Each user can enter data about themselves that gets stored in the database and can dictate who can see and who can't see that data. Hence although users can edit their own database data they should not be able to download it or open it in a database program like access and see what others do not want them to see. They can see what others have put in the database but only if the person entering the data has added them to their list of valid viewers. I am assuming Indy components can do what I want but I have only ever done simple file reading with IdHTTP before and do not know where to start with reading and writing to a database with Indy (I can do it in Delphi using ADO). So my questions are: What is the best way to go about this? Which Indy components should I read about? Are there any tutorials that may be useful? How do I make sure the database is secure from those trying to read what others want to keep private to a small group of users? Many thanks if you can help. Back to top Francois PIETTE [ICS - Mi Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:54 am    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? Quote: I want to write a program so that users go to a web site and they can request to see data that is stored on a database that is stored on the web server. This will be on a commercial ISP and not a dedicated corporate server. Do you want to write the server side program or the client side program, or both ? If you want to write the server side program using Delphi, you must have your ISP running a Windows web server and allow you to run binary programs (CGI or ISAPI) that extend the web server, or run an arbitrary binary that listen on a given port. Most ISP doesn't allow either. Instead they allow PHP or ASP and similar server side "scripting" language). If you want to write the client side program, you may use any HTTP client component such as HttpCli from ICS (http://www.overbyte.be) or IdHttp from Indy. -- Contribute to the SSL Effort. Visit http://www.overbyte.be/eng/ssl.html -- [email]francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be[/email] The author for the freeware multi-tier middleware MidWare The author of the freeware Internet Component Suite (ICS) http://www.overbyte.be Back to top Lorne Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:34 am    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? "Francois PIETTE [ICS - MidWare]" <francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be> wrote in message news:432d2b6a$1 (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com... Quote: I want to write a program so that users go to a web site and they can request to see data that is stored on a database that is stored on the web server. This will be on a commercial ISP and not a dedicated corporate server. Do you want to write the server side program or the client side program, or both ? If you want to write the server side program using Delphi, you must have your ISP running a Windows web server and allow you to run binary programs (CGI or ISAPI) that extend the web server, or run an arbitrary binary that listen on a given port. Most ISP doesn't allow either. Instead they allow PHP or ASP and similar server side "scripting" language). If you want to write the client side program, you may use any HTTP client component such as HttpCli from ICS (http://www.overbyte.be) or IdHttp from Indy. Thank you very much for your reply and link to your site. I think I want to have a database file on the web and to write a client program that reads and writes to/from the database but I can't see what Indy (or other) components to use to write to/from a database that is on the web. If the database was on the client or a LAN I would use TADOTable & TDataSource to connect to it but what do I use to connect over the web? Will the HttpCli component you mention do that? I can see from your site it will read/post data but my specific question is whether it can insert data into an existing database file in a recognised database format? The database will be too large to download the file, insert data and then upload as many users will have dial-up connections and the database will grow to over 1 Mb. I do not want to use PHP/ASP as I have no knowledge of either at the moment so I am trying to see if I can use my Delphi knowledge to do it and the only gap is how to read/write to a database on the web. The only thing I have ever done using Indy is to read a text file on the web using IdHTTP but adding data to a field in a database or adding a record to the database is something very different and I do not know where to start looking (unless you tell me your components can do it). Also, can I do this just by writing a client program and having nothing but the database on the web or do I need something running on the web server as well? Back to top Francois PIETTE [ICS - Mi Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:43 am    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? Quote: I want to write a program so that users go to a web site and they can request to see data that is stored on a database that is stored on the web server. This will be on a commercial ISP and not a dedicated corporate server. Do you want to write the server side program or the client side program, or both ? If you want to write the server side program using Delphi, you must have your ISP running a Windows web server and allow you to run binary programs (CGI or ISAPI) that extend the web server, or run an arbitrary binary that listen on a given port. Most ISP doesn't allow either. Instead they allow PHP or ASP and similar server side "scripting" language). If you want to write the client side program, you may use any HTTP client component such as HttpCli from ICS (http://www.overbyte.be) or IdHttp from Indy. Thank you very much for your reply and link to your site. I think I want to have a database file on the web and to write a client program that reads and writes to/from the database but I can't see what Indy (or other) components to use to write to/from a database that is on the web. If the database was on the client or a LAN I would use TADOTable & TDataSource to connect to it but what do I use to connect over the web? Will the HttpCli component you mention do that? What you want to do require both a client and a server. Let's talk about client first: being a "web" application, the natural client is a Web Browser. But generally speaking, this client could be anything that "talk" HTTP. So your client could be a Delphi program which make use of a HTTP client component (THttpCli in ICS). With such a component you'll be able to send request from your Delphi client program to the server just like a browser would. You can "Get" some URL or "Post" some data. Quote: I can see from your site it will read/post data but my specific question is whether it can insert data into an existing database file in a recognised database format? I understand your question. So let's talk about the server side. A webserver (That is a program which understand requests sent according to the HTTP protocol and "execute" such requests, returning documents (usually HTML files baut also any kind of document)) has no provision to access a database. You have to write some code at server side. There are a lot of possibilities fior that: PHP, ASP, ASPX, CGI, ISAPI, PERL and more. Whatever language you select, the idea is to have an URL which when activated write data to the database or read data from the database. Usually, this URL is a HTML form's action. This URL is mapped by the webserver to some exention depending on the language you selected. If you use Delphi, there are several extension type available. I suggest you use either CGI or ISAPI (The first is a simple EXE file while the other is a DLL). You could also write WebService or complete standa alone application server. When the webserver receive a URL request mapped to your extension, it launch the EXE or the DLL and pass everuthing it knows: the URL and data posted along with the URL, if any. Then your program (CGI-EXE or ISAPI-DLL) do whatever it likes with the data using your usual database component to read/write from/to your database located on the server. The main task of this program, beside doing database I/O you need, is to return a valid HTTP response to the webserver which in turn return it to the web client. This valid HTTP respond is a document, probably a HTML file but could be a JPG or GIF file, or anything else. Quote: The database will be too large to download the file, insert data and then upload as many users will have dial-up connections and the database will grow to over 1 Mb. With the programming model I explained above, you never download the database. The client send requests, the server execute it and return some result. Quote: I do not want to use PHP/ASP as I have no knowledge of either at the moment so I am trying to see if I can use my Delphi knowledge to do it and the only gap is how to read/write to a database on the web. As I said above, the eaisiest is to write a CGI or ISAPI extension. Using Delphi: File / New / Other / New / WebServer application then select ISAPI/NSAPI or CGI (or Apache Shared module which is the same as ISAPI but for Apache server). Quote: Also, can I do this just by writing a client program and having nothing but the database on the web or do I need something running on the web server as well? You have to write both server and client side. Use ICS HTTP client component at client side. Use standard Delphi ISAPI/CGI/Whatever at server side, or use ICS HTTP Server component to write your web application without even using a webserver ! To select the best server side solution, you have to ask your hosting ISP what kind of technology they allow. If you host yourself your application, then you may select whatever your like most. To host it yourself, you just need a permanent link to the internet with - preferably - a fixed IP; and of course a computer with the required resources. Windows 2K or 2K3 _server_ is mostly required unless you plan to have only a handful of simultaneous clients. -- Contribute to the SSL Effort. Visit http://www.overbyte.be/eng/ssl.html -- [email]francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be[/email] The author for the freeware multi-tier middleware MidWare The author of the freeware Internet Component Suite (ICS) http://www.overbyte.be Back to top Lorne Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:35 pm    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? Many thanks. It will take me some time to work through this but it is clear to me now what I need to do. "Francois PIETTE [ICS - MidWare]" <francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be> wrote in message news:432d5300$1 (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com... Quote: I want to write a program so that users go to a web site and they can request to see data that is stored on a database that is stored on the web server. This will be on a commercial ISP and not a dedicated corporate server. Do you want to write the server side program or the client side program, or both ? If you want to write the server side program using Delphi, you must have your ISP running a Windows web server and allow you to run binary programs (CGI or ISAPI) that extend the web server, or run an arbitrary binary that listen on a given port. Most ISP doesn't allow either. Instead they allow PHP or ASP and similar server side "scripting" language). If you want to write the client side program, you may use any HTTP client component such as HttpCli from ICS (http://www.overbyte.be) or IdHttp from Indy. Thank you very much for your reply and link to your site. I think I want to have a database file on the web and to write a client program that reads and writes to/from the database but I can't see what Indy (or other) components to use to write to/from a database that is on the web. If the database was on the client or a LAN I would use TADOTable & TDataSource to connect to it but what do I use to connect over the web? Will the HttpCli component you mention do that? What you want to do require both a client and a server. Let's talk about client first: being a "web" application, the natural client is a Web Browser. But generally speaking, this client could be anything that "talk" HTTP. So your client could be a Delphi program which make use of a HTTP client component (THttpCli in ICS). With such a component you'll be able to send request from your Delphi client program to the server just like a browser would. You can "Get" some URL or "Post" some data. I can see from your site it will read/post data but my specific question is whether it can insert data into an existing database file in a recognised database format? I understand your question. So let's talk about the server side. A webserver (That is a program which understand requests sent according to the HTTP protocol and "execute" such requests, returning documents (usually HTML files baut also any kind of document)) has no provision to access a database. You have to write some code at server side. There are a lot of possibilities fior that: PHP, ASP, ASPX, CGI, ISAPI, PERL and more. Whatever language you select, the idea is to have an URL which when activated write data to the database or read data from the database. Usually, this URL is a HTML form's action. This URL is mapped by the webserver to some exention depending on the language you selected. If you use Delphi, there are several extension type available. I suggest you use either CGI or ISAPI (The first is a simple EXE file while the other is a DLL). You could also write WebService or complete standa alone application server. When the webserver receive a URL request mapped to your extension, it launch the EXE or the DLL and pass everuthing it knows: the URL and data posted along with the URL, if any. Then your program (CGI-EXE or ISAPI-DLL) do whatever it likes with the data using your usual database component to read/write from/to your database located on the server. The main task of this program, beside doing database I/O you need, is to return a valid HTTP response to the webserver which in turn return it to the web client. This valid HTTP respond is a document, probably a HTML file but could be a JPG or GIF file, or anything else. The database will be too large to download the file, insert data and then upload as many users will have dial-up connections and the database will grow to over 1 Mb. With the programming model I explained above, you never download the database. The client send requests, the server execute it and return some result. I do not want to use PHP/ASP as I have no knowledge of either at the moment so I am trying to see if I can use my Delphi knowledge to do it and the only gap is how to read/write to a database on the web. As I said above, the eaisiest is to write a CGI or ISAPI extension. Using Delphi: File / New / Other / New / WebServer application then select ISAPI/NSAPI or CGI (or Apache Shared module which is the same as ISAPI but for Apache server). Also, can I do this just by writing a client program and having nothing but the database on the web or do I need something running on the web server as well? You have to write both server and client side. Use ICS HTTP client component at client side. Use standard Delphi ISAPI/CGI/Whatever at server side, or use ICS HTTP Server component to write your web application without even using a webserver ! To select the best server side solution, you have to ask your hosting ISP what kind of technology they allow. If you host yourself your application, then you may select whatever your like most. To host it yourself, you just need a permanent link to the internet with - preferably - a fixed IP; and of course a computer with the required resources. Windows 2K or 2K3 _server_ is mostly required unless you plan to have only a handful of simultaneous clients. -- Contribute to the SSL Effort. Visit http://www.overbyte.be/eng/ssl.html -- [email]francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be[/email] The author for the freeware multi-tier middleware MidWare The author of the freeware Internet Component Suite (ICS) http://www.overbyte.be Back to top tony Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 3:37 pm    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? Quote: If you host yourself your application, then you may select whatever your like most. To host it yourself, you just need a permanent link to the internet with - preferably - a fixed IP; and of course a computer with the required resources. Windows 2K or 2K3 _server_ is mostly required unless you plan to have only a handful of simultaneous clients. If you are going to host it yourself, windows should not be the first choice, I would use Linux with apache and Postgresql as the backend database. You can easily write server side apps using Kylix, and you can even do them in the Delphi 7 IDE with CrossKylix. Even if you don't host it yourself, find a ISP that uses linux, they almost always allow you to run CGIs and provide database access, either MySQL or Postgresql. I use Interland's Linux solutions and for 29.00 dollars per month I get everthing I need including full SSH access to my account and 5gb of data transfer. I can also run CGI based webservices or plain CGIs created with Kylix. Back to top Francois PIETTE [ICS - Mi Guest Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:14 pm    Post subject: Re: What is the best way to do this? Quote: If you host yourself your application, then you may select whatever your like most. To host it yourself, you just need a permanent link to the internet with - preferably - a fixed IP; and of course a computer with the required resources. Windows 2K or 2K3 _server_ is mostly required unless you plan to have only a handful of simultaneous clients. If you are going to host it yourself, windows should not be the first choice, I would use Linux with apache and Postgresql as the backend database. Linux is not a good choice for a Delphi programmer. Windows is perfect for hosting a web application. Of course it has to be configured (and updated) correctly to avoid security problems. Windows out of the box is risky but properly configured, it is OK. If you don't know how to do that, buy the book "IIS Security" by Marty Jost and Michael Cobb, published by Osborne Mc Graw Hill. It is a good book for security beginners. -- Contribute to the SSL Effort. Visit http://www.overbyte.be/eng/ssl.html -- [email]francois.piette (AT) overbyte (DOT) be[/email] The author for the freeware multi-tier middleware MidWare The author of the freeware Internet Component Suite (ICS) http://www.overbyte.be Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         BorlandTalk.com Forum Index -> Delphi Internet Winsock All times are GMT Page 1 of 1   Jump to: Select a forum C++ Builder Newsgroups----------------C++ BuilderC++ Builder (ActiveX)C++ Builder (Announcements)C++ Builder (Command Line Tools)C++ Builder DatabasesC++ Builder Databases (ADO)C++ Builder Databases (Desktop)C++ Builder Databases (InterBase Express)C++ Builder Databases (Multi-Tier)C++ Builder Databases (SQL Servers)C++ Builder (Graphics)C++ Builder (IDE)C++ Builder (Internet)C++ Builder (Internet Socket)C++ Builder (Internet Web)C++ Builder (Jobs)C++ Builder (Language)C++ Builder (Language C++)C++ Builder (Compatibility with MFC)C++ Builder (Native API)C++ Builder (Non-Technical)C++ Builder (Students)C++ Builder (Third Party Tools)C++ Builder (Upgrade)C++ Builder (VCL)C++ Builder (VCL Components Usage)C++ Builder (VCL Components Development)C++ Builder (VCL Usage)C++ Builder (WinAPI)C++ Builder Installation Delphi Newsgroups----------------Delphi (General)Delphi ActiveX Controls UsageDelphi ActiveX Controls DevelopmentDelphi As400Delphi DatabasesDelphi Databases (ADO)Delphi Databases (dbExpress)Delphi Databases (Desktop)Delphi Databases (InterBase Express)Delphi Databases (Multi-Tier)Delphi Databases (SQL Servers)Delphi DeploymentDelphi GraphicsDelphi IDEDelphi InternationalizationDelphi InternetDelphi Internet Isapi-WebBrokerDelphi Internet WebSnapDelphi Internet WinsockDelphi JobsDelphi Language BASMDelphi Language ObjectPascalDelphi Model Driven Architecture (General)Delphi Model Driven Architecture (Third Party)Delphi MultimediaDelphi Native APIDelphi Non-TechnicalDelphi ObjectPascalDelphi OLE AutomationDelphi OO designDelphi OpenToolsAPIDelphi Reporting-ChartingDelphi RTLDelphi StudentsDelphi TeamSourceDelphi Thirdparty ToolsDelphi Thirdparty Tools (General)Delphi Thirdparty Tools (IntraWeb)Delphi Thirdparty Tools (RaveReports)Delphi UpgradeDelphi VCLDelphi VCL ComponentsDelphi VCL Components UsingDelphi VCL Components WritingDelphi WebServices SOAPDelphi WinAPIDelphi XMLDelphi Installationcomp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misccomp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usagecomp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.writingcomp.lang.pascal.delphi.databasescomp.lang.pascal.delphi.misccomp.sources.delphi JBuilder Newsgroups----------------JBuilderJBuilder AnnouncementsJBuilder Applet IssuesJBuilder As400JBuilder CompilerJBuilder CORBA/RMIJBuilder DatabasesJBuilder DB SwingJBuilder DebuggerJBuilder DeploymentJBuilder DocumentationJBuilder EnterpriseJBuilder HandheldJBuilder IDEJBuilder JavaJBuilder JavaAPIJBuilder Java LanguageJBuilder Java SwingJBuilder Java BeansJBuilder Java Beans UsageJBuilder Java Beans DevelopmentJBuilder JBCLJBuilder JDataStoreJBuilder JobsJBuilder LinuxJBuilder MacintoshJBuilder & MobileSetJBuilder MultiLingual AppsJBuilder Non-TechnicalJBuilder OpenToolsJBuilder Servlets (JSP)JBuilder StudentsJBuilder Team DevelopmentJBuilder Thirdparty ToolsJBuilder UpgradeJBuilder Installation InterBase Newsgroups----------------InterBaseInterBase Bug DiscussionInterBase GeneralInterBase IBConsoleInterBase OpenSourceInterBase ReplicationInterBase SQLInterBase ThirdpartyInterBase Installation Miscellaneous Borland Newsgroups----------------AppCenterAppServerEnteraVisiBroker  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2006 phpBB Group SEO toolkit © 2004-2006 webmedic.