This is a work in progress. Caveat lector.
Project HOSPEXerver
This is a demonstration of a proposed HOSPEX-WWW database model and a
dedicated HOSPEXerver software as outlined in specifications. It allows
one to evaluate and compare two as yet imaginary services:
-
ftp://user:password@hospex.icm.edu.pl/path/file
- a HOSPEX member accesses the service using an ftp-URL
which allows for incorporation of a password.
- http://hospex.icm.edu.pl/path/file
- a not (yet) a member accesses the service using a
widely-publicized http-URL (presumably ;-)).
A short description of the database model
Consult the specifications
to learn more about here mentioned unfamiliar concepts. The database of
HOSPEX member records is arranged in a hierarchical tree of Continent/
[Geographical Region/] Country/ [State/] Town. It contains three types
of documents, uniformly named to allow easy mechanical
distinction between them -- case-sensitive names!
- index.html
- one per directory, contains a list of all subdirectories, updated
each time the database has changed. Except for the one at the highest
level all other index.html documents are automatically updated
each time the database has changed (records added or removed) and then
acc. to precompiled rules that differ depending on each index' place
(level) in the hierarchy. This is also the document that's returned
automatically by HOSPEX' HTTP server whenever the requested URL string
ends with a directory, or "directory/", not some particular filename.
- nn.txt
- where nn = two-digit sequential number with leading zero where so
required; one or more per directory. Such documents contain
member-records, each one a filled, in advance preindexed and normalized
ASCII form . The HOSPEXerver will parse
it in real time and, depending on type of access (HOSPEX member/
non-member), subject some of its elements to different degree of
"massaging", enhancement, before pushing out the {serial} port as
fully-qualified HTML datastream.
- *.html
- other navigation documents, created once and in principle never
changed; they provide multiple parallel 'views' of and pathways in
the database outside the main Continent/ Country/ Town hierarchy.
Note that all files named with a leading dot are
simulations of their by HOSPEXerver in real time
transformed/ HTMLised dotless equivalents. So they
are NOT part of the proposed structure.
Only a small part of the database has been defined (simulated)...
follow the path to Berlin.
Comments, preferably with a reference to the URL, are welcomed:
Ian Feldman ianf@eleet.mimuw.edu.pl