http://www.matisse.net/webgen/webgen.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
Profile:
Webgen(tm) Software
Last update: 11/28/95
This document is http://www.matisse.net/webgen/webgen.html
Webgen(tm)
takes output generated from practically any database -- and converts it
into HTML files, either on-the-fly or in batches.
By using templates to control the look of pages, your final pages
can look like anything you want - any format you can do by hand you
can have Webgen(tm) do automatically for one page or hundreds of pages.
This makes it incredibly easy to maintain a large web site that changes
frequently. We have a diagram showing a simplified
scheme of how Webgen works.
Each record from the database corresponds to an HTML page. Webgen(tm) formats
each record according to a template.
- Templates determine how Webgen(tm) translates database records into
HTML.
- You can have as many templates as you like.
- Templates can contain any valid HTML (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.) as well as
other elements not available in "pure" HTML, such as code to get
and display the size of a file, or to calculate and manipulate data.
- You might have one template for Press Releases, another for Personnel Profiles,
others for each type of Product or Service, and so on.
- Webgen(tm) creates an HTML page for each record in the database, and
it also creates HTML "Index Pages" that are made up from information
on all the pages in one or more categories. A typical use is to create index
pages that list all the "Sports" items, etc. Indices of Indices
are also created if desired. Index Pages are controlled by templates too,
so they can look like anything you want.
- Using the templates, Webgen(tm) can display any field from the database
in any HTML format desired. So the "date" field might appear in
italics on Press Release pages, but in bold format on Contest
Entry pages.
- Because pages created by Webgen(tm) are based on the fields in your
database, it is very easy to build in hooks for field-based full-text searches.
We have a program we wrote that glues FreeWAIS-sf to web pages and we will
give that away under the GNU software license soon.
Sound complicated? It isn't really. The upshot is that if you've got a database
you can create a set of templates -- instructions for how you want your
HTML output to look -- run the database through Webgen(tm), and you've got
a complete set of HTML pages including index pages.
Licensing for Webgen(tm) is on a per-cpu basis. Webgen is a C program, and
should compile on any normal UNIX system. So far we have compiled Webgen(tm)
under SunOS 4.1.4, Irix 5.3, Linux 1.1.94 on Intel-based machines, and Solaris
2.4.
Webgen(tm) is inexpensive - basic single-cpu license is $3500. This
includes 10 hours of consulting time to help with installation and
teaching you to create and use templates.
Demo copies are available to serious prospects.
An alternative to licensing Webgen(tm) is to have us run your data through
and send you a complete set of web pages. Contact us for pricing.
Here are some examples of sites using Webgen(tm):
- Twentieth Century Fox
Home Entertainment's Video Catalog
- The 1300+ files searched by this system were built using Webgen and
a template designed by .
Clement Mok designs.
- Our Glossary of Internet Terms
- We maintain this glossary in an off-line database, where each item
is one record in the database. Using Webgen(tm) makes it easy to update the
online version.
- Lucasarts Entertainment http://www.lucasarts.com/
- Every page except the home page and one or two others are generated
with Webgen(tm). The database used is FileMaker Pro in this case.
- Macworld Online http://www.macworld.com/
- Contains the full text of Macworld magazine, updated issue by issue.
More information about Webgen(tm) is available:
Webgen(tm) is copyright 1995 by ILC and Bonsai.
For more information contact Internet
Literacy Consultants +1.415.469.8271
