Lyceum Course - Internet Genealogy

Lyceum Course - Internet Genealogy - Database Searching

An Description of What's Going On When You Search a Data Base Accessible via the Web
- A Browser (Type of Application or App) - Eg. Internet Explorer (or Firefox or Opera or ...)
  After a link is clicked
- Acquires and displays a file which contains Entry Lines/Boxes. In this case the page is called a Forms Page such as the Google Advanced Search page
- A typical data base search involves -
  - The user (usually you) filling in all or part of the form.
  - Clicking a Search Button
  - The browser communicates with the server which originally provided the Forms Page
  - The browser sends the information from the entry information on the Forms Page
  - The server takes the form data and formulates a Search Key to guide a search of a Data Base
  - Thus acquiring data (one or more records) from the data base which matches the Search Key.
  - Formats that information into an Html Page
  - Returns that Html Page, which often contains Links
  - For display by the browser app, on the client computer.
- For all practical purposes, these generated pages called Computer Generated Information or cgi are indistinguishable from any Html returned pages, whether they do or do not contain Links or Entry Lines/Boxes
- In Browsing we provide a URL for finding the next page.
- In Searching we provide not only the URL but the information to be used as the Search Key