WebPublisher - Acquiring Data
WebPublisher can collect data from users via the Internet or from other sources such as TCP/IP streams and Thin/Thick Client applications.

For example, by using HTML forms submitted using standard web browsers you can acquire any kind of data that can normally be submitted over TCP/IP. Adding additional browser-side support to HTML forms using Java it is possible to perform limited field validation and pre-submission checks before posting data to WebPublisher. Using Thick/Thin Client applications allows business logic to be handled on the client side. You can even perform Client/Server activities and create a local cache of server data to improve performance.

WebPublisher can operate as a gateway and conduit for shuffling data between wide area network database systems. You can use WebPublisher as an intelligent hub to shunt streams of data between remote users - import last month's sales figures to your enterprise server. Or get your sales rep to post today's orders via the net for processing off the main enterprise server on the following day. WebPublisher can be configured as a patch-bay for integrating and communicating data between systems using HTTP.

By using WebPublisher templates to develop a custom, plug-in library to handle calls from WebPublisher's request dispatcher, a programmer can take control over the values submitted using HTML. The eventual destination for any data acquired is entirely up to the programmer - write directly to a local data cache or use an ODBC session to send to an SQL compliant back-end.