How should a webmaster incorporate a web page database into a web page?
There are no industry standards for web page databases. Each software vendor defines his own database design and implementation requirements. The webmaster must refer to the software vendor's documentation for specific installation and usage instructions.
All Java web page databases are embedded in an HTML document using the
applet tag. This tag allows the webmaster to specify a location on the screen for the applet window using height, width and alignment. Some web page databases are implemented as floating windows, so the only requirement is to define the applet window on the HTML page big enough to accommodate an activation button. The web page visitor would press this button to display the floating window.
Not all browsers are capable of supporting Java applets. A webmaster should consider the following techniques to accommodate visitors using these older browsers. A text message can be displayed to inform the visitor that they need a Java enabled browser to utilize the search facility. Links to the browser vendors download sites can be provided to the visitor. The webmaster can include an image of the database screen to show the user the system they are missing. And the webmaster can display hyperlinks to alternate HTML pages that contain alternate data in an HTML table or list.
Web page database software can take anywhere from 25 KB to 75 KB for the Java class file. The size of the data file depends on the quantity of data. To keep the visitor busy during the download, the designer can provide instructions on the top of a web page while the applet loads on the bottom of the page.
An animated GIF progress bar or a message estimating the download time are also
friendly user techniques.
