Using Echelon SQL Scripter with PostgreSQL

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Using Echelon SQL Scripter with PostgreSQL

Echelon SQL Scripter (http://www.digitalthought.net/echelon/) is your best friend when it comes to rapid development of web scripts to interface with databases.

Originally created by Matt Springfield (current maintainer of Echelon-PHP), Echelon allows the web developer to modify database information very quickly when using HTML forms.

By simply posting your HTML form to Echelon, it will create all of your INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE SQL on the fly, then redirect back to a user specified target URL.

The key with the Echelon script is it uses the form element names as the column names in the SQL statement. So in building a HTML form you simply name the form elements the same as the corresponding column names in your table.

Echelon then loops through the array, builds the appropriate SQL statement, connects to the database, then redirects to the file of your choice.

Echelon was initially designed to work with PostgreSQL. All of the scripting languages which are presently supported by Echelon, PHP and JSP/Servlets as of this writing, fully support PostgreSQL.

Installation

Implementing it into your PostgreSQL backend is quite simple. Here are the steps you need to perform :

  1. Uncompress and install Echelon
    • For PHP: Simply place it in your web directory.
    • For JSP: Place the JSP scripts within your web directory and place the .class files in your servlet container's CLASSPATH.
  2. Configure Echelon to use your database
    • Either echelon.php or echelon.jsp needs to be edited.
    • It needs to know the database server name, database name, port number, username, and password required to access your data.
  3. Setup your database tables. If you have existing database tables you may skip this step. Keep in mind though your HTML form input names must be the same as your database column names.
  4. Create your HTML form. BE SURE to name your input field names the same as your database columns! If you don't, Echelon will not work!

Examples of how to write your HTML for INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE queries are in the README files of each distribution.

The Future

Echelon SQL Scripter is an open source project distributed under the GNU GPL license. As advocates of open source, we believe this project has incredible potential in the open source community.

As Echelon becomes a greater asset to developers, we would like to see this project continue to grow in user base and functionality. Future versions of Echelon will include a web-based configuration script to tailor it to your personal app and support for all databases.

We also plan to develop an Active Server Pages version, and database and web development tools within Echelon. If you are interested in contributing to the Echelon project please email any of the maintainers listed below.

Acknowledgements

The Echelon Project Home Page.

Echelon-PHP is maintained by Matt Springfield Echelon-Java is maintained by Branden R. Williams

This document was co-written by Branden R. Williams and Matt Springfield.

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