ShowTheBest.Com Interactive tables on your web pages

What Is ShowTheBest.Com

Directory Hierarchy

ShowTheBest.Com requires three directories:

• webpages
  This directory contains your web-accessible webpages. (This directory can be renamed.)
• cgi-bin
  This directory contains CGIs for the ShowTheBest.Com Runtime (webmap-f.cgi), the ShowTheBest.Com Design Tool, Control Tool, Initializing Tool, and Label Tool.

  (For extra security, after you are finished building your ShowTheBest.Com Application, you should remove the ShowTheBest Development Tools from a public directory or run the Development Tools on a different server.)

• stb
  This directory contains the ShowTheBest.Com Interactive Table Specification Directories: a set of directories for each Interactive Table Application you need. This Directory also contains subdirectories containing text files for alternate browser versions.

Each Interactive Table Specification Directory can contain 9 text files that ShowTheBest.Com uses to score and display. The Interactive Table Directory can also contain subdirectories containing text files for alternate browser versions.

The text files contained in an Interactive Table Directory are:

1. The Case Database Table file (Mandatory)
   The file in this directory with the name tablefile.txt specifies the table used by ShowTheBest for matching and scoring. This is your data that you want ranked and prioritized. The first line specifies the number of rows and the number of columns. You need to use an editor or spreadsheet to create this file. This file corresponds to the table (that you pasted in the text area) of the ShowTheBest.

   This file can also be dynamically generated by another program that ShowTheBest.Com calls (ie, a Perl program that calls a MySQL DBMS program).

2. The Display Database file (Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name ddbfile.txt specifies the HTML for the Display Database (DDB). The DDB is a "display alias" for the Database Table: rows or columns in the DDB correspond to rows or columns in the Table. The first line of this file specifies the number of rows in the DDB which corresponds to the number of rows in the Database. You need to use an editor to create this file.

   All matching, scoring, and sorting is done on the Table but the display shows the formats and contents of the DDB. If you do not create a DDB then the Database Table will be displayed instead, according to the default ShowTheBest styles and formats.

   This file can also be dynamically generated by another program that ShowTheBest.Com calls (ie, a Perl program that calls a MySQL DBMS program).

3. The controls file (Use the the Control Tool to Automatically Build It )
   The file in this directory with the name controlfile.txtspecifies general parameters for the Interactive Table, including the appearance of the Case Database Table and the Display Database; the appearance of scores, widgets, and labels; and if needed, the name of an external calling program (together with any arguments) that is used to dynamically create the database tables. You interactively build the control file with the ShowTheBest Control Tool. If you do not create a control file then ShowTheBest will use a set of default controls.

4. The label file (Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name labelfile.txtspecifies the text for the labels and headers used in the Interactive Table form. You interactively build the label file with the ShowTheBest Label Tool. If you do not create a label file then the default ShowTheBest labels will be used.

5. The header file (Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name headerfile.txtspecifies the HTML header file you would like to insert before the ShowTheBest Interactive Table. You need to use an editor to create this file. If none is provided then ShowTheBest inserts its own default header.

6. The footer file (Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name footerfile.txtspecifies the HTML footer file you would like to insert after the ShowTheBest Interactive Table. You need to use an editor to create this file. If none is provided then ShowTheBest inserts its own default footer.

7. The Map file (Use the Design tool to Automatically Build It)
   The file in this directory with the name mapfile.txtspecifies the weight and field maps for the Interactive Table form. Weight maps are used to express importance criteria and field maps are used to express value criteria. You interactively build the map file with the ShowTheBest.Com Design Tool.

   Note: Never manually modify the map file. Use the tool instead.

8. The Init file (Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name initfile.txtspecifies the initial values of the weight and field widgets for the Interactive Table Form. You interactively build the init file with the ShowTheBest.Com Initializing Tool.

   Note: Do not manually modify the Init file. Use the tool instead.

9. The Log file(Optional)
   The file in this directory with the name stbLogfile.txtcontains the values of all user responses to your Interactive Table. It records the values of the weight and field widgets after each user submission. Use this form to gather statistics on your users.

Note that three of the above files -- the DDB and the header and footer files -- can have several versions depending on your user's browser type. These 3 specification files files are contained in a browser version subdirectory. Here is an example of Interactive Directory "ecommerce" showing all 9 specification files and 2 subdirectories (for Netscape Navigator versions 4.7 and 5.0):

Potential Problems?