Microsoft dbWeb, in a Nutshell

May 1996

The dbWeb service
The dbWeb administrator
Benefits of using dbWeb

Microsoft® dbWeb has two major components:

The dbWeb service processes the data retrieval requests, and formats and displays the results. The results are displayed based on the specifications you provide by using the dbWeb administrator. You can control how much of your data the visitor sees, what fields are used in queries, and whether the visitor can insert, update, or delete records.

The interaction between the dbWeb service, the dbWeb administrator, and Internet clients is illustrated below.

[DBW2280B  5579 bytes ]

Microsoft dbWeb 1.1 architecture



The dbWeb service

The dbWeb service is the component that handles the data processing between your ODBC data source and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). This component processes the queries the user enters from a Web browser (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer), and handles the communications between the browser, the ODBC data source, and IIS to display the results on a Web page. The dbWeb service is an ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface) application, thus providing better performance and easier setup than a CGI application.


The dbWeb administrator

The Microsoft dbWeb administrator creates HTML pages that can be displayed with Web browsers.

Microsoft dbWeb uses schemas to control how the database information is published on the Internet. Schemas define the query and resulting HTML pages that are displayed on the Web.

No HTML or ISAPI programming knowledge is necessary to create the dbWeb schemas. The dbWeb administrator provides an interactive Schema Wizard, which uses questions and answers to create the schemas. The wizard allows you to:


Benefits of using Microsoft dbWeb

Here are some of the advantages of using Microsoft dbWeb:

Creates instant Web pages. You can use Microsoft dbWeb to publish information in HTML format without programming in HTML or the Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI). dbWeb supports dynamic data queries and basic row manipulation. You can also customize your Web pages using the DBX editor and the methods provided with the dbWeb administrator.

Provides an easy-to-use interface and customization. Microsoft dbWeb administrator offers several levels of assistance in creating your Web pages:

Connects to diverse data sources. You can use a variety of client/server and desktop databases with Microsoft dbWeb:Offers client/server functionality. With Microsoft dbWeb you can easily:UpBack to the Microsoft dbWeb home page

© 1996 Microsoft Corporation