DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 425 730
IR 019 218
AUTHOR
Snyder, Robin M.
TITLE Using 4DOS Batch Files To Create an Infrastructure That
Makes It Easy for Students To Create and Maintain HTML Web
Pages.
PUB DATE
1998-00-00
NOTE
10p.; In: Association of Small Computer Users in Education:
Proceedings of the ASCUE Summer Conference (31st, North
Myrtle Beach, SC, June 7-11, 1998) ; see IR 019 201.
PUB TYPE
Reports Descriptive (141) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*Authoring Aids (Programming); Automation; College Students;
*Computer Oriented Programs; *Computer Software Development;
Higher Education; *Hypermedia; *Programming; Programming
Languages; User Needs (Information); World Wide Web
IDENTIFIERS *Batch Processing (Computer Science); Disk Operating
Systems; HTML; Infrastructure; *Web Pages
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the use of simple 4DOS batch files to
automate the creation and maintenance of an infrastructure to assist students
in creating and maintaining HTML World Wide Web pages. Background is provided
on Web pages, DOS, 4DOS, and batch files. The assumptions made in creating
the infrastructure are summarized, and program statements and resulting
output are presented.
(AEF)
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1998 ASCUE Proceedings
Using 4DOS batch files to create an infrastructure that makes it easy for
students to create and maintain HTML Web Pages
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
C.P. Singer
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."
ABSTRACT
Robin M. Snyder
Byrd School of Business
Shenandoah University
Winchester, VA 22601
[email protected]
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it.
O Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
Learning HTML is not that difficult. Neither is using an HTML editor. Many of the practical
problems in having students create and maintain HTML web pages are a result of a lack of a suitable
infrastructure. This paper (and presentation) will describe (and demonstrate) the use of simple 4D05
batch files to automate the creation and maintenance of such a system. Although 4DOS supports
quite sophisticated batch processing, many common tasks involving multiple users, directories, and
files can be done by taking the supplied batch file templates and making simple modifications to
them. This paper (and presentation) would be of interest to anyone, including network
administrators, who want to make it easy for students to create and maintain HTML web pages, or
who wish to automate some of the many tasks that must be done for each and every user, directory,
or file on the network.
WEB PAGES
Web pages are text files that are written in a text formatting language called HTML. It is assumed
that the reader is somewhat familiar with HTML files. HTML files are accessed on the Internet via
their URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL for Shenandoah University is
http://www.su.edu
which refers to the University's web server running Microsoft Windows NT. All clients run
Windows 95 while the file servers run Novell NetWare. The author's web directory on the Internet
is in the WEB directory on the KITHARA: volume of the NetWare file server called STUDENT.
When logged onto the network, this directory is mapped as the DOS directory SAWEB, as the DOS
directory (mapped as root) WA, as the NetWare directory STUDENT/KITHARA:WEB and as the
Internet directory
ht tp : / /www. su . edu /ki thara.
Thus, when logged into the STUDENT
NetWare file server as member of group KITHARA, the following all refer to the same directory.
S:\WEB
W : \
STUDENT/KITHARA:WEB
If
http://www.su.edu/kithara
Io`!
It is a simple matter for the network/web administrator to map the Internet URL
http://www.su.edu/kithara
to the NetWare directory STUDENT/KITHARA:WEB. In this case, the Windows NT web server
is attached to the NetWare server as user/process WEBMASTER and has "Read" and "File Scan"
rights in that directory. Thus, instead of using FTP (file transfer program) to put files on the web
server, a simple file copy operation can be used by
both teacher and students.
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Each student is assigned a subdirectory in this web subdirectory with appropriate rights. Drive
mappings provide each student convenient access to his or her own directory, while a web page in
the root provides convenient access to any student web page for Internet browsers.
There are many ways to automate the required Net Ware mappings. The following Net Ware login
script is used for Kithara network users.
IF FILE_SERVER = "STUDENT" THEN BEGIN
IF MEMBER OF "KITHARA" THEN BEGIN
WRITE "BEGIN KITHARA login script..."
MAP S:=STUDENT/KITHARA:
MAP ROOT U:=STUDENT/KITHARA:USER/%1JOGIN_NAME
MAP ROOT W:=STUDENT/KITHARA:WEB
WRITE "END KITHARA login script."
END
END
Alternatively, if login scripts are not used, the student (or teacher) can create the drive mapping
once
and specify that the mapping is to be reconnected at login. (This is a feature of Windows 95).
However, creating and supporting the necessary infrastructure to make it
easy for students (and
teachers) to use this capability without having to know too much about the
process is the topic of the
rest of this paper.
ISN'T DOS DEAD?
To most users, DOS means the command line interface found in the
program
command . c orn.
Let's
face it. DOS was usable, but not easy or friendly. Since 1986, sophisticated
users have used 4DOS
in the form of
4dos
. com
to replace
command . corn
as their command-line processor. The
advantage of 4DOS is that the command set and user interface is a large superset of DOS, providing
most of the conveniences that have been provided in UNIX command line interfaces for several
decades. 4DOS is very compatible with DOS, the only differences being in areas where the makers
of 4DOS, JP Software, Inc., had to decide whether to duplicate certain bugs (or features) in DOS.
For example, should 4DOS duplicate what the official documentation says
command. corn
does
or what
command. corn
actually does.
4DOS is shareware that is available from JP Software, Inc. Additional information is available at
their web site at http://www.jpsoft.com. And, since JP Software has similar versions available for
OS/2, Windows NT, and Windows 95, the same batch files can be used with those systems.
But, why are we talking about DOS? Isn't DOS dead? Well, yes and no. Few users use DOS, and
those that do use it to run legacy programs that still serve some useful purpose. But, some form of
batch processing is still required in any system, unless one is willing to do every task, no matter how
many times it is to be done, via point and click and keyboard input.
Programming languages can be used to automate such tasks. Visual Basic is the primary systems
language in Windows. REXX is the primary systems language in OS/2 (and other IBM systems).
Java is fast becoming a viable alternative for certain types of batch processing. Products such as
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Novell Group Wise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino have made their API (Applications Programmer
Interface) available through Java applications (but not via applets, since there are additional security
restrictions on applets that are not present for applications). But, for many batch tasks, 4DOS batch
files fit the bill quite nicely, the other alternatives being just to complicated and difficult to develop
and maintain for certain tasks.
BATCH FILES
A DOS batch file is a text file that contains DOS commands. A 4DOS batch file is a text file that
contains 4DOS commands. The default file extension of a DOS batch file is
. bat. The default file
extension of a 4DOS batch file is
. btm,
which stands for batch file executed in memory. 4DOS
loads the entire batch file into memory and executes it there rather than the DOS approach of loading
each line from the file as it is needed, so that changes in the file during execution modify the
behavior or the batch file. For example, the following batch file outputs the text "Hello, World.".
@ECHO OFF
ECHO Hello, World
The
@ECHO OFF
turns the ECHO off after this statement, and the @ causes the ECHO not to be
echoed. A 4DOS setting fixes this feature (or bug) so that every batch file does not have to begin
with @ECHO OFF.
An ASCII text editor such as Notepad can be used to edit text files, whether they be data files or
batch program files. The task can be simplified by creating a shortcut on the desktop with a
command line that invokes Notepad and opens the desired file. For example, the following command
invokes Notepad and opens the batch file F:\USERS\hello.btm.
C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe F:\USERS\hello.btm
This command assumes that the Windows directory is C :\WINDOWS.
Running a batch file is simple. If the batch file were F: \ USERS \hello . btm, the command to
run the batch file would be F: \USERS \ hello . btrn. A shortcut to run the batch file would have
the following command line.
G:\4DOS600\4dos.com /C F:\USERS\hello.btm
This command assumes that
4dos . com
is in the directory
G:\4DOS600.
The redirection character "> ! " can be used to redirect the output of a batch file to another file. For
example, the command
F:\USERS\hello.btm >! F:\USERS\hello.out
causes the output of
hel lo . btm
to be sent to the file
hello
. out,
overwriting any previous
hello . out file.
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We will now look at 4DOS batch files from the point of view of making it easy for students to create
and maintain HTML web pages. The extensions to user and group management in a network
environment are intimately related, as we shall see. Only those features of 4DOS that are necessary
for this goal will be covered, leaving many other useful and powerful 4DOS features unmentioned.
ASSUMPTIONS
We have to start somewhere, so let's make the following assumptions.
A teacher (or network administrator) is going to create such an infrastructure to support students (or
users) on a network which is connected to the Internet.
To avoid overly complicating the system, the removal of students from the system will not be
addressed, but is left as an exercise for the reader. In practice, since it can be difficult to determine
manually which directories should be deleted, the system will just grow larger until provisions are
made to reduce the size of the directories.
The list of student names and userids for the students are in a text file, one per line, separated by the
colon character ":". This text file could be created manually or created as the output of a database
query or spreadsheet program. The text file
F : \USERS \users .dat will
be used for example
purposes and appears as follows.
Snyder
: Tamara
: TAMARA
Snyder
: Gregory
: GREGORY
Snyder
: Cory
: CORY
Snyder
: Luke : LUKE
Greenly
: Emily : EMILY
For convenience, the user last name, first name, and userid are on the same line. This means that we
will need to separate them in order to process the userid separately from the user name. The last
name appears first so that the file can be easily sorted by last name.
The fiist batch file uses the environment variable G and the FOR command to ECHO every line of
the text file users . dat.
FOR %G IN (@F:\USERS\users.dat) ECHO %G
The envitonment variable
F is set to each of the lines of the text file and then echoed to the screen
using the ECHO
command.
But, in most cases, more than one statement is needed to accomplish the desired purpose. The
previous program can be written as follows.
FOR %G IN (@F:\USERS\users.dat) GOSUB :PROCESS
QUIT
:PROCESS
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ECHO %G
RETURN
We now need to separate the user name from the userid. The environment variable U will
be used
for the userid and the environment variable
N will
be used for the name. The following program
does such a separation and outputs just the userid.
FOR %G IN (@F:\USERS\users.dat) GOSUB :PROCESS
QUIT
:PROCESS
SET I=%@INDEX[W,:]
SET L=%@TRIM[Ii@SUBSTRM,0,%I]]
SET F=A@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%G,%@EVAL[%I+1],255]]
SET I=A@INDEX[%F,:]
SET U=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%FA@EVAL[%I+1],255]]
SET F=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%F,0,%I]]
GOSUB :PROCESS1
RETURN
:PROCESS1
ECHO Last="%L"
First="%F"
UserID="%U"
RETURN
The statements in
PROCESS
look imposing, but they are just used to split the line of text and set
the environment variables
N
and U. Note that a feature of 4DOS is that since the comma " , " is
used to delimit arguments to
SUBSTR,
a comma cannot appear in the text file, as might be
desired
if the names were to be of the following form.
<last>
, <first>
The output is as follows.
Last= " Snyder "
Last= " Snyder"
Last= " Snyder "
Last= " Snyder "
Last="Greenly"
First="Tamara"
First="Gregory"
First="Cory"
First="Luke"
First="Emily"
User ID= " TAMARA"
Us er ID= " GREGORY"
UserID="CORY"
UserID="LUKE"
UserID="EMILY"
Note that we are not concerned with lining up the output. Note also the
introduction of the procedure
PROCESS1.
To save space, unless otherwise specified, all program code will refer only to the body
part of the
PROCES
S 1 procedure of the program. The
PROCES S1
statements of the above program
are as follows.
ECHO Last="%L" First="%F"
UserID="%U"
The following
PROCESS 1
statements create a user and web directory for each student, if that
directory does not already exist.
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other users to place information in directories that appear on the Internet.
MASTER INDEX
The next step is to create a master index as the file
D: \ index . htm.
This can be accomplished
with the following program.
ECHO '<HTML>'
ECHO '<HEAD>'
ECHO '<TITLE>Kithara students</TITLE>'
ECHO '</HEAD>'
ECHO '<BODY>'
ECHO '<H1>Kithara students</H1>'
ECHO '<UL>'
FOR %G IN (@F:\USERS\users.dat) GOSUB :PROCESS
ECHO '</UL>'
ECHO '</BODY>'
ECHO '</HTML>'
QUIT
:PROCESS
SET I=%@INDEXM,:j
SET L=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%G,0,%I]]
SET F=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%G,%@EVAL(%I+1] ,255]]
SET I=%@INDEX[%F,:]
SET U=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%F,%@EVAL[%I+1],255]]
SET F=%@TRIM[%@SUBSTR[%F,0,%I]]
GOSUB :PROCESS1
RETURN
:PROCESS1
ECHO '<LI>'%L, %F
'<A' HREF="./%U/index.htm"'>'%U'</A>'
RETURN
Note that since "<" and ">" are special characters (for redirection) in DOS, those characters need
to be enclosed in backquotes (i.e., all but environment variables can be enclosed in backquotes).
The output is as follows.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Kithara students</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Kithara students</H1>
<UL>
<LI>Snyder, Tamara
<A HREF="./TAMARA/index.htm">TAMARA</A>
<LI>Snyder, Gregory -<A HREF=" . /GREGORY/index.htm">GREGORY<IA>
<LI>Snyder, Cory
<A HREF="./CORY/index.htm">CORY</A>
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<LI>Snyder, Luke
<A HREF="./LUKE/index.htm">LUKE</A>
<LI>Greenly, Emily - <A HREF="./EMILY/index.htm">EMILY</A>
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Suppose that this program is called F: \USERS\makelist. btrn.
The following 4DOS command
will run the batch file with the output redirected to the file
ID: \WEB\ index
. htm.
F: \USERS\makelist.btm >! D: \WEB\index.htm
Note that the command line from an icon shortcut would be as follows, where
4dos
. c orn is
located in the directory G: \4DOS600.
G:\4D0S600\4dos.com /C F:\USERS\makelist.btm >I D:\WEB\index.htm
Now, anyone who can access the file
D: \WEB\ index . htm
has convenient access to any of the
student web pages.
Suppose that each student is supposed to create a web page as the file
index . htm
in their web
directory (i.e., the directory created by the above program). Which students have web pages? The
following PROCESS1
statements display the userids of those students who do not have an
index . htm
file.
IFF NOT EXIST D:\WEB\%U\index.htm THEN
ECHO User %U does not have a web page.
ENDIFF
Note that we can assume that the directory does exist, because we just ran the previous program that
updated the creation of the directories.
But, why not give users a default web page, if one does not already exist? The following
PROCES S1
statements creates a default web page for the student if and only if that student does not
already have a web page. That is, we don't want to erase any of their previous work.
IFF NOT EXIST D:\WEB\%U\index.htm THEN
ECHO Making web page for %U as D:\WEB\%U\index.htm.
CALL F:\USERS\makepage.btm >! D:\WEB\%U\index.htm
ENDIFF
The batch file
makepage . btm
can assume that the environment variables U and
N have been
set properly.
The batch file makepage
. btm appears as follows.
ECHO '<HTML>'
ECHO '<HEAD>'
ECHO '<TITLE>'%F %L'</TITLE>'
ECHO '</HEAD>'
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1998 ASCUE Proceedings
ECHO '<BODY>'
ECHO '<H1>'%F %L'</H1>'
ECHO '<UL>'
ECHO '<LI>'UserID: %U
ECHO '</UL>'
ECHO '<HR>'
ECHO '<A HREF=../index.htm>Back to student list</A>'
ECHO '</BODY>'
ECHO '</HTML>'
The default home page for user
TAMARA
appears as follows.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Snyder Tamara</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Snyder
Tamara</H1>
<UL>
<LI>UserID: TAMARA
</UL>
<HR>
<A HREF=../index.htm>Back to student list</A>
</BODY>
</HTML>
CONCLUSIONS
4DOS is an easy and powerful to create an infrastructure that makes it easy for students to create and
maintain HTML web pages. This article has just touched on the use of 4DOS to automate such tasks.
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
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