More of this Feature • Pg 1: Intro to web-broker • Pg 2: Using this tutorial • Pg 3: Getting started • Pg 4: Web Actions • Pg 5: The first ISAPI app • Pg 6: TWebRequestObject • Pg 7: Request-responding • Pg 8: TPageProducers • Pg 9: Cookies made easy • Pg 10: Stateless HTTP • Pg 12: FAQ • Pg 13: DB apps - Part 1 • Pg 14: DB apps - Part 2 • Pg 15: DB apps - Part 3

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Related Resources • Internet programming • CGI and ISAPI with Delphi

Up to know, we have seen alot about ISAPI programming in Delphi. However, if you look back, really we haven't seen anything. All that stuff with Cookies, PageProducers, etc is very good but not really a lot of use to us. Sure, there are tons of things you could do with that, but nowadays most internet-programming is focused around databases. Anything you need to do at work or at home really needs you to interact in someway with a database. This is where the true power of Delphi and Internet programming comes to life.

Since we have a lot of ground to cover, I have thouhgt it best to divide this chapter in several parts. From here you can jump to what most interests you. I recommend that if you are new to this area, to read them in consecutive order.

All these examples are going to use Interbase as the database server. This is due to two reasons, first of all I love Interbase and prefer it to many RDBMS's out there (very little maintanance). Second of all, it comes with Delphi, so you can easily run all the examples.

I don't recommend using Paradox or any flat-file database for Internet usage. If you think that MS-SQL, Interbase or Oracle are too expensive to purchase for your company or private use, remember that you have Interbase 4.2 for free on Linux. For the most usage you will be giving it over the Internet, this version should be sufficient. You do not have things like cascading updates in this version, but you could easily overcome this feature.

   Setting up Interbase
To setup Interbase correclty to be able to use it with ISAPI applications you need to do the following:

1. Make sure Interbase is running as a service.
2. Click on the Services icon in Control Panel and choose Interbase Server. Click on the Startup button and tick the checkbox "Allow to interact with Desktop".
3. Do the same for WWW services.
4. In the BDE, make sure that you prefix the path to the database with your machinename, e.g.machine.domain:c:\databases\data.gdb. (notice the : after the domain).

As you can notice (point 4), I'll be using the BDE to access Interbase in the examples and not the IBX components. This is so people that do not have Delpih 5 can still follow the examples. IBX will probably be covered in part two of this tutorial (not part 2 of this chapter!).

This chapter will be divided up into three parts, but first read the FAQ.

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