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.
