Hi,
I am having problems with EZDB and although I wouldn't normally post in a competitor's board I am getting desparate . I have a site, The Long Dark Foundation, that epublishes new author's work and I run currently three relational (this was one of the reasons I went with ezdb in the end) databases one with books in, another with account details and the last with members. When you download a book with us then what I want is for you enter your membership code and PIN and if the PIN matches then we debit your credit bank (stored in the members db) by the book price, write a record to your acount details in the accounts db, increment a counter in the book db and redirect you to the URL where the bookfile is. Now this is where the problems arise. I don't know how to get the members database bank to decrement, write an account record in another db etc... I am sure mods come into it somewhere but I am confused out of my mind by the poor documentation and nonexistant support structure. If it weren't for the urgent need for the database to be ready (31st of this month) and the fact that some membership records have also been uploaded then I would probably switch back. If anyone can help a tired and confused admin get a confused system to work then I would appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

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Joseph Geldart
Director of Administrations, TLDF

If you could provide the URL to the EZDB site, we may be able to help you...although people may not be excited to help someone get a competitor's product to work.

Also, you may want to think about uploading your scripts as text files and post the URL where people can view them, so that people can see the codes you are using.



Regards,

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Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

Sorry...but I really don't have time myself to look over another programmer's script that is hard to read and understand.

If your current database files are in pipe delimited format (e.g., author|me|pipe|), then it would'nt be very hard to switch back to DBMAN. All you would have to do is create three .cfg files for each of them. You could use the same db.cgi and html.pl file for all three databases.

If you are interested in switching to DBMAN and would like assistance, there are many DBMAN users are willing and able to help you.
I would personally assist you but I am short on time myself with projects and papers. However, I am not interested in helping you with a program like EZDB that is so hard to understand.

BTW: The EZ part of the name is a misnomer. It should be named HDB (Hard Database).



Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

Oops *blush*
I forgot to give you the URL... here it is www.longdark.co.uk but I wasn't able to upload the codes properly so if you want the code then email me and I will promptly send you the data (my server isn't doing too good today)

EZDB is a product of EZPERL ( www.ezperl.com )... I have made NO modifications to the availiable version. Thanks

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Joseph Geldart
Director of Administrations, TLDF

[This message has been edited by Arnia (edited October 05, 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Arnia (edited October 05, 1999).]

Arnia,

I have briefly looked over the documentation and files for EZDB. It is a very confusing program to say the least. Also the programmer is inaccurate in his comparision table between DBMAN and EZDB. The "relational" aspects of EZDB is NOT really relational at all. It seems that the only thing you can do is link to other records in other database files, but there does not seem to be a seamless method of inserting data from another database directly into a record (refer to IX Cross Table References: How to implement "Relations": in the README file).

I don't know if you aware, but JPDeni has written a really nice tutorial on how to insert data between different databases in one record display. Also many of the features that the EZPERL people mention as "lacking" in DBMAN is inaccurate.

There are mods available for the following:

1) Email Notification:
(Private, Admin, etc.)

2) File Upload

3) DBMAN Templates (recently written by a Gossamer Script user, which functions similar as the LINKS program)

etc., etc.

I would recommend switching back to DBMAN. It would take me a few hours to analyze the scripts and come up with something that may or may not work.

If all you want is to insert data from different databases into one record view, this can now be done with DBMAN.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but the EZDB program is not that easy to analyze and is not written in an user-friendly manner.

Regards,



------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

Thanks... I am time limited which is the major problem My site is a hobby for me and I don't have time to transfer the entire data structure of the three databases across.

If you could offer any assistance it would be much appreciated and you would instantly get a post (even if you don't do more) in the organisation. I am sorry for asking but I am studying for school as well as organising the publishing of a book...

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Joseph Geldart
Director of Administrations, TLDF

 

I have already decided to flip back... I was refering to the work involved in converting the data files etc. The main problem are the headers... They are stored as plain HTML files with fieldnames to be filled in. Is there an easy(ish) way to convert them to HTML.pl or equivalent? Thanks for your help so far

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Joseph Geldart
Director of Administrations, TLDF

Well, what you can do to include fields in the headers and footers is add the codes you have in your HTML files in the following sub-routines:

sub html_footer and sub html_header routines in the html.pl file.

Since you are switching back, could you also switch back to the DBMAN Discussion Forum for further assistance.



This forum is strictly for asking general questions about CGI and Perl, not specific Gossamer Scripts.



Thanks.

------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us