While there are three variations to WebCatalog's internal databases, we will start with the easiest, a tab delimited database with the headers in the database file. The first line of the file contains the names of the fields that will hold the data. Each field name is separated by a tab character. Each field name contains no spaces, and is meaningful. On the second line, and all that follow, is the actual data. This database is called listings.db. In WebCatalog, databases should generally end in .db. If you make a database name end with another extension, you will most likely need to reconfigure WebCatalog to recognize the file as a valid database file.

For those of you who have other experience with databases, you may be wondering where the rest of the information about the database is stored. (like the indexes.) In WebCatalog there is no such thing. Because these are RAM stored databases, these other parts (like indexes) aren't strictly needed, and would just add complexity and overhead.

Our First Database
We have to start somewhere, so we're going to pretend that we have a client who wants a real estate website. The first concept we are going to learn is searching a database to show content on a web page. Let's say that we given a list of of 10 houses that want to be listed for sale. The first thing we have to do is put them into a database that WebCatalog can understand. For the purposes of this guide, I will be illustrating the database structure with spaces to improve legibility, your databases will not look like this (in most text editors) when done properly.

listings.db

Address          City        Zip     Bedrooms   Baths  Sq_Ft
123 West Main    Parsippany  07054   3          2.5    2000
13 Oak Street    Parsippany  07054   1          1      950
48 Rock Ave      Huntsville  08943   2          2      1700
836 Main St      Dover       07652   4          3      2400
99 Century Blvd  Rockaway    07924   2          2      1500
7 Lucky Lane     Dover       07652   5          5.5    3500
432 Beverwyck    Dover       07652   3          1      2200
88 Eighth Ave    Parsippany  07054   2          3      880
62 Valley View   Rockaway    07924   1          2      1200
Route 3 Box 52   Newton      08876   3          2.5    2200

This beginning database could be quickly put together in just about any text editor, (such as BBEdit for the Mac, or TextPad for the PC) or as a tab delimited export of a spreadsheet from Excel. On thing I have noticed is that the server likes to have databases where the line endings are matched to that server type (i.e. Macs like lines that end in a <CR> while Unix computers like lines that end in <LF> and PC servers like lines that end in <CR><LF>) your mileage may vary, but talk to your server administrator about this if a newly created database doesn't seem to be working correctly.

Don't stop now, the ride is just beginning...

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