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Using the Object Bind Editor is a matter of selecting an Activator on a Web page, typically an HTML anchor or form. You then tie the Activator to a data object, such as a database or prebuilt appli cation module. Finally, you choose how you want the result to appear in the Web browser by indicating which of the more than 20 supplied HTML templates best suits the application you're working on. For the development of Web-based data entry applications, client-side editing logic can make use of a library of JavaScript or VBScript field validation functions. And for transactional integrity when multiple related Web pages need to update a database, Sapphire/Web maintains state information, typically in cookie files, to ensure that partial, incomplete transactions get backed out.

Bluestone includes JDK 1.1 with Sapphire/ Web, and it's received "100 Percent Pure Java" certification. Supported Web servers include those from Apache, CERN, Microsoft, Mustang Software, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Netscape, Open Market and Oracle.

Borland International In traBuilder
IntraBuilder promises to be the Turbo Pascal of intranet development environments: Its drag-and-drop interface and ease of use may well do for intranets what Turbo Pascal did for PC-DOS. IntraBuilder prepared complex reports and database-oriented small Web applications, yet didn't require a great deal of programming expertise. It also connected natively to databases and Web servers.

As we worked with IntraBuilder, we designed Web pages visually in the product's design environment, dragging and dropping to our heart's content to place the various elements on the page. We liked IntraBuilder's visual development environment, which proved to be a tremendous time-saver during our development effort. As with Sapphire/Web, IntraBuilder's generation of flawless, robust JavaScript impressed us, but we would have liked IntraBuilder even more if it were also able to emit Java server programs and Java applet client-side modules.

The primary component of IntraBuilder is a preprocessor software module you in stall on your Web server. The preprocessor augments the Web server by intercepting the data stream to and from the browser and giving you the opportunity to dynamically emit HTML, including database material, from within scripts you developed in the visual design environment.

IntraBuilder consists of a set of visual Designer modules, Broker Web server connections, and Borland Database Engine and Agents. The Broker connections support popular server protocols and APIs (NSAPI, ISAPI and the pervasive, vendor-independent CGI), while the Agents create dynamic HTML from JavaScript forms and reports. JavaScript, which is simpler than Java, is available in the latest releases of browsers from Netscape (Navigator) and Microsoft (Explorer). JavaScript has a dynamic object model, allowing the creation of classes and objects with single inheritance, and it offers automatic data type conversions (you worry less about data types in JavaScript programs). IntraBuilder extends JavaScript with programming enhancements th at let you use arrays of literals, code blocks and exception handling.

Visual design aids, called Wizards or Experts, automatically emit the appropriate JavaScript language statements and specify the content and appearance of your Web pages. We noted that developing the simplest Web page is as easy as dropping a table you've selected in the Database Explorer window onto the visual design window. Without further ado, you have a query object and associated Web pages for immediate use. And if you eschew visual design aids and would rather code your visual elements directly in JavaScript, Borland's IntraBuilder is flexible enough to allow it.