Data Files

Webstructor Application keeps data in text files written in Object-Relational Language (ORL).

Usually, these files have extension *.txt so they may be edited by any text editor and stored on any web server without of having web server reconfigured to handle some other extension.

When you start Webstructor Application without of input argument in command line, it tries to find file "webstructor.txt" in directory where it is started. If file exists, Webstructor tries to load World from this file. If there is no View defined in the file, Application creates Default View. If you make changes in this view or other views you create and click Post button, your changes will be saved into "webstructor.txt" file. Then, you can open this file by any text editor and take a look what is going on there.

Of course, you can specify name of the file to load World from explicitly - passing the name of the World for Webstructor when you start it.

Of course, you can create your own ORL file or change existent one using the same statements you use in console. For example, you can create new file "our_family.txt" using any text editor and type or copy the following text there. After that, save the file and execute Webstructor passing this file as argument.

VIEW NAME "Our Family";;

THING NAME Wife;; THING NAME Husband;;

Wife name Pam;; Husband name Bob;;

VIEW (NAME "Our Family") LINK IS; NODES X 100; Y 100; IMAGE OVAL; THING(Pam);, X 300; Y 100; IMAGE RECT; THING(Bob);;;

VIEW (NAME "Our Family") NODES X 50; Y 50; IMAGE OVAL; THING(Wife);, X 350; Y 50; IMAGE RECT; THING(Husband);;;

THING NAME Woman;; VIEW (NAME "Our Family") NODES X 150; Y 50; IMAGE OVAL; THING(Woman);;;

THING(Pam) IS(WOMAN);;

THING(Bob) IS(WOMAN);;

THING(Bob) IS ~(WOMAN); URL "http://www.yahoo.com";;

The same ORL files may be stored on the web server so Webstructor Applet could load them. For example, here are links to text ORL files used in examples on this site.

Webstructor Index

Webstructor Architecture