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How to Publish a Web Database Using eCriteria
eCriteria’s mission is simple: to provide a simple to
use, yet effective tool for creating databases on the Web with the following
characteristics: (1) no server programming is required, (2) no database knowledge
is required, (3) no database software is needed on your Web server, (4) we will
host all your database content, and (5) your Web database is independent of your
Web server hardware and software platform. eCriteria makes all this possible.
Using eCriteria’s
straightforward Web Database Publishing Wizard, you can put your data on
the Web in a matter of minutes. Below is a quick introduction illustrating how
to create a Web database using eCriteria. For more detailed, step by step
instructions, please click through our demo.
| Step 1 |
After you become a member of
eCriteria, you will enter the “My eCriteria Control Panel.” After
you log in, you can always enter this section by clicking on the
“My eCriteria Control Panel,” link which is found at the bottom of almost
every page on the website. You should click on the button “Create new
database” to create a database without any data. If
you already have data that you would like to upload into a new
eCriteria database, you should click on “Upload data.”
By clicking either one of these two buttons, you will
immediately go through a series of steps to create your database.
Even without knowing any database programming, you can zip
through this process in less than 15 minutes.
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| Step 2 |
As an eCriteria customer,
you have complete control of your data by using your own private data
maintenance functions. You can access your data maintenance area by logging in
to eCriteria, and clicking on the button “Data Maintenance” in
your “My eCriteria Control Panel.” Here, you can modify, add, delete,
and search for data in all the databases you created. Also, you can
download data in your databases by clicking on
the button “Download Data” in your “My eCriteria Control Panel.”
This is especially useful if you want to download information
that you have received through an eCriteria data entry form on your
website. You can download the data onto your local desktop PC as plain-text or XML,
into spreadsheets and database software applications. You can also update database properties
for a specific database, delete a database (it's data and structure), delete only
the data from a database, and upload new data into an existing database, all from
your “My eCriteria Control Panel.”
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| Step 3 |
If you have a website, you can
easily provide a link to your eCriteria database. This means that you can
quickly integrate database content with your current site without all the
technical headaches typically involved. All you have to
do is add a single hypertext link to your website that brings your
users here to eCriteria to access the database. There is a function in your
“My eCriteria Control Panel.” that will automatically
generate the required link. All you have to do is copy/paste into a Web page on your site.
After the user uses your database, he/she will be taken immediately back to your website.
The integration is seamless and simple. It is a perfect way to
add database content to any website.
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| Step 4 |
eCriteria makes customizing the look-and-feel
of your database unbelievably simple and convenient. You have two choices: (1) You can
add your logo to appear on the same page as your eCriteria database when you link
your database to your website. (2) You can add your logo, text, and other graphics
on the same page as your database by manipulating the HTML we provide.
If you don’t know HTML, you can use an HTML editor such as
Frontpage to make your database web pages look exactly how you want them to look.
Please read Our Service for more detail.
There are functions in your “My eCriteria Control Panel.” that will automatically
generate HTML code for interfacing to eCriteria. All you have to do is copy/paste into
a Web page on your site. These two customization features are reserved for Premium and
Enterprise members.
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| Step 5 |
Once you have published your database, if
you have specified that it is to be “public,”, then anyone who finds your
database on eCriteria can enter the name of your database (and optional password) and
interactively search through your data using the criteria you specified during the
publishing process. They can also add data to your data entry forms, as well.
People using your database are not required to become eCriteria customers and may access
your database free of charge.
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| Step 6 |
If you would like more help in building
your database, please go back to our How To
page. There, you will find more detailed instructions on various aspects of using
eCriteria, as well as our click through Demo.
Have fun with eCriteria and your new Web-hosted databases!
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