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DataCraft
| Overview
| FAQ
| Requirements
| Discussion |
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Update:
[01/06/99]
The new version of DataCraft contains some bug fixes for the Microsoft Access database as well as new functionalities.
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The two ongoing major initiatives by the W3d consortium, RDF (Resource
Description Framework) and XML(eXtensible Markup Language),
are becoming standards for information exchange between peer data stores,
and between client visualization tools and data servers.
DataCraft is an application generation tool targeted for RDF/XML applications in the
context of Web-commerce applications. DataCraft, a facility capable of generating visual
query skeletons and running the queries against DB2, is an excellent tool for Web-Database
application generation using XML.
DataCraft provides client tools visually navigating resource schema, and query language
building queries visually from the schema based on XML and RDF. DataCraft uses RDF and XML
to describe data collection structures and to exchange resource schema and query between
the server and client. DataCraft is written in JAVA and can be accessed by web browsers.
Currently, DataCraft supports relational data servers such as IBM DB2 or Microsoft Access.
- I don't have RDF processor and XML parser installed on my machine. Do I have to install them first to run DataCraft?
No, you do not have to install them separately.
Though DataCraft requires them to run, it is not necessary
to install them separately as datacraft.jar is already bundled
with RDF and XML packages (com.ibm.rdf and com.ibm.xml.Parser).
- I already have RDF and/or XML installed on my machine. Is it okay to keep them?
If the version you have is the same (or later) as those bundled
in datacraft.jar, it's all right to have them. However, if they are
older than specified the requirement, DataCraft would not work
properly.
It is a good idea to eliminate the old versions from CLASSPATH.
Or, the path to datacraft.jar has to be placed earlier in CLASSPATH
than the older versions.
- Does datacraft.jar have to be installed on DataCraft home directory?
No, datacraft.jar can be installed anywhere on your system,
as long as CLASSPATH includes the path.
- Why does my browser need to be SWING compliant?
DataCraft client is a java applet using SWING components.
To run a SWING applet, you need a browser that has Java Plug-in installed,
or a JDK 1.1-compliant browser that can find the Swing classes.
- How can I make my browser SWING compliant?
It depends on the browser. A good instruction of making a browser Swing ready by browser and machine type is available in SUN's JAVA website.
There, you can test if your browser is already swing enabled.
Click here to view the
Installation Procedures
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DataCraft Platform Requirements |
| Platform |
Any Java 1.1 (or greater) enabled platform |
| Java Tools |
JDK 1.1 |
| XML processor |
XML Parser for Java 1.1.4 (or later) |
| RDF processor |
RDF for XML |
| Database System |
IBM DB2 or Microsoft Access |
| Browser |
JAVA and SWING compliant Web Browser |
| Computer |
486 or greater |
DataCraft Installation Procedures
- Unjar the distribution package, datacraft.zip into a directory. You will see the following files:
- README.txt: this file
- datacraft.jar: all java packages necessary to run DataCraft
- images.jar: image files used by DataCraft GUI
- Store datacraft.jar to an appropriate directory and add the path to datacraft.jar to your CLASSPATH.
- Create DataCraft home directory on which you hold read/write permission. For example, do the following on Windows platform:
- c:\> mkdir DataCraft
- Unjar images.jar under DataCraft home directory. This will create a subdirectory "images" that contains images files used by DataCraft GUI.
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