Suggestions for technology used for an application

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I want to develop an application. Simply,

  • Open this application via the web
  • Access database to retrieve some information
  • Do some validation and process inputs
  • Create a file based on a master file from a UNIX server
  • Put that file to the UNIX server

That is it. I have got suggestions to do this with Perl CGI. (my system has up to Perl only - no Python)

Is Perl CGI a better way to do it? Or are there anyother alternatives that are more effective than CGI?

2

PHP looked nice for the first three, but then you got into batch. Maybe put that file into a DB table, process it and select out the new file? Can the unix server push the file so it gets processed and returned, perhaps with a web query?

3

I don't think PHP would be good for me.. Since the system that I am working do not have any PHP codecs :smiley:

We are talking about a huge file here :slight_smile: more than a million records. Loading that into a temporary table is worthy when I have lot more functions to carry on with the data. All I do here is a simple comparison against a column and prepare the new records based on it.

Any other suggestions are welcome too

4

Some RDBMS allow you to map the file as a table - the data has to get over the rdbms wall somehow. I did it in Interbase/firefox using UDF with a SP.

PHP is open source code for the web server, similar to ASP/JSP.

5

DG.. Thanks for the interest shown.. :slight_smile:

I am working with Informix with too many restrictions. I am sure that I am not allowed to install Interbase/firefox in my system (working system not my own.. company's :D)

That is why I had to think about Perl CGI.

6

Well, no point in bothering the web server for the batch, normally. PERL can talk to RDBMS as a client, running a query per record. Mapped in files are virtually inside the DB engine, allowing them to be worked in SQL and efficiently related to other tables inside a single, big query. Google "INFORMIX external file as table", and voila: Using data file abstraction with external tables in Informix Dynamic Server- You want to write a query that goes through the file one time relating records to a join of db tables, and returns a cursor of augmented data to your client. You need a robust client setup, not something dopey like some odbc/jdbc cursors that query all the result into VM first so you can walk backward, forward, etc. You need a non-reversible cursor that just flows the data out through your client code immediately as it arrives.