Present Limits
What are the current limitations of a web page database?
The current version of Java 1.0.2 does not support printing the data displayed within the applet directly to the client computer's printer. This can be a stifling restriction depending on the application. However, the webmaster can develop alternate pages of text specifically designed for printing. Some web page database software vendors have developed specialized browser related techniques to prepare a formatted HTML document for printing. You can expect a better solution to this printing problem in the next few months because it has been reported that the new release of Java 1.1 will have printing capabilities.
The number of records that a web page database can hold is constrained by the size of the client computer's memory capacity. However the number of records considered acceptable to download into a web page database is likely determined by the total number of bytes within each web page database. As a rough estimate it is quite reasonable to have 50 KB of data in a database. This translates into 500 records of 100 bytes each or 1000 50 byte records. The data provided to these databases will always take less space then a comparable HTML document full of formatting tags. It is quite common to see an HTML document with more tags than actual data especially if they contain tables or graphics. As communication speeds increase so too can the acceptable amount of data per page.
A web page database is a display only system. It is designed to support query and reporting of data. No updating of data is allowed.
There are numerous differences in the execution of Java applets running on different operating system and under different browsers. This is more a frustration to Java developers than to users of Java systems. Java developers are forced to reduce the functionality of systems in order to allow them to function properly in all environments.
The Java language does not support hypertext link fields as a standard text component. So you cannot use hypertext links embedded in text in the database. It is technically possible to develop a Java system to support hypertext links.
The new release of Java 1.1 is now available to developers however the popular browsers have not yet incorporated the new Java 1.1 capabilities. This new release is touted to provide more tools to Java developers to design better user interfaces. You should see these new features in just a few months.
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