
iHTML Pro V2.1
15-September-97
Once you have installed iHTML Pro,
this page will be replaced with the online documentation
which is provided for this WebSite Pro 2.0 component.
WebSite Pro contains iHTML 2.1 Professional,
the Inline HTML server extension tool
kit. The iHTML extension to HTML is more than a
simple scripting language. Using
iHTML 2.1, you can enhance your web site with
- order
query or order entry systems
- online content maintenance
- random advertising
- site changes based on time of day or user
- database generated sites that appear static
- dynamic VRML, and more.
iHTML 2.1 is implemented as a dynamic linked
library (DLL). You place iHTML tags
directly into regular HTML files. These tags allow you
to do such things as access databases,
perform math calculations, and define IF/THEN constructs, loops, and error
handlers. By combining iHTML with Java Script within
the same page, you can build
some powerful combinations of server and client-side
programming. The iHTML extension
specifically addresses the following server-side needs:
- Database access. There are many products available
for web-to-database connectivity.
What sets iHTML apart from the rest, is its ability to
access multiple data sources
on one HTML page. iHTML also has numerous database
cataloging capabilities, can
handle multiple concurrent connections, and can
perform database joins between different
database systems using ODBC.
- Flow control and error handling. iHTML adds logical
processing to web pages with
WHILE loops, IF/ELSE constructs, CASE statements and
FOR/NEXT looping capabilities.
iHTML allows you to include one HTML file within
another. Further, when
the iHTML engine has finished processing one page, it
can direct the browser to
another page with iHTML.
- Dynamic graphics. With iHTML’s powerful graphics
engine, you can program graphics,
draw images on the fly, or overlay graphic images
within an HTML document.
By combining dynamic graphics with database access,
you can generate charts and
graphs from data stored in a corporate database
system. All processing is done on the
server and no plug-ins or special browsers are
required. iHTML can also natively
load over 10 different graphics file formats such as
BMP, JPEG, PCX, and TIF and
do the conversion to non-compressed GIF and XBM on the
fly.
- Background page processing. iHTML’s unique
background page processing feature
runs a page in the background, performing specified
functions. For example, by combining
background page processing with iHTML’s Internet
features, you could build
a mailing list manager that polls a mail server,
queries a database for subscriber
email addresses, and redistributes that mail to the
subscribers.
- Internet features. Many scripting languages
available today are ports of standard languages
to the web. These do not address the specific features
available on the Internet
such as DNS lookup, POP and SMTP mail, web
advertisement management,
server push technology, and so on. iHTML is designed
for the Internet, giving you
tools for creating ambitious web-based systems.
- Traditional programming functions. Like all good
programming languages, iHTML
includes features to manipulate strings, do
mathematical calculations, and use or create
dates. iHTML can create variables, find lengths of
strings and perform most of
the functions you would find in a traditional
language.
If you know HTML, it is easy to learn iHTML
because the language has been kept as
close to the HTML standard tag structure as possible. Install
iHTML Pro and get started!
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