This book assumes you have some basic background, including
LiveWire runs on Windows NT and Unix workstations (see release notes for specific Unix platform support). You must have a Netscape HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) server running on the workstation to run LiveWire applications.
Read the release notes for updated information on LiveWire, including known problems, how to report bugs, and other important information. LiveWire release notes are available online at
http://home.netscape.com/eng/LiveWire/relnotes
Each platform has a separate file, for example, win-1.0.html for Windows NT.
LiveWire is an online development environment for Web site management and client-server application development. It uses JavaScript, Netscape's scripting language, to create server-based applications similar to CGI programs. Unlike CGI programs, however, LiveWire applications are closely integrated with the HTML pages that control them.
LiveWire has three major components: Site Manager and the LiveWire compiler, the LiveWire server extension, and Netscape Navigator Gold. LiveWire runs in concert with Netscape servers and is packaged both separately and together with a server. LiveWire Pro adds a Structured Query Language (SQL) database and report generator.
Site Manager is the main graphical interface for LiveWire application developers and Web masters. Site Manager provides
With the LiveWire compiler you can create LiveWire applications that have JavaScript statements embedded in HTML. You can compile applications using the Site Manager graphical interface or with a command-line interface. For more information on building applications, see Chapter 3, "Developing applications."
The LiveWire server extension works in concert with a Netscape server to run applications, creating interactive Web pages. The LiveWire server extension is built into Netscape version 2.0 servers.
The LiveWire server extension provides
Navigator Gold is an edition of Netscape Navigator that provides a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") interface for creating and editing HTML pages, including the ability to edit JavaScript statements embedded in HTML.
For more information on using Navigator Gold to create and edit Web pages, see the Navigator Gold Authoring Guide.
LiveWire Pro adds two components to the basic LiveWire set: a SQL database server and Crystal Reports report generator. If you do not already have a database server, LiveWire Pro gives you the capability to create database applications. Crystal Reports lets you generate HTML reports from your database. These two components have their own documentation.
LiveWire runs on Unix, Windows NT, and Macintosh operating systems; the information here applies to all versions. File and directory paths are given in Windows format (with backslashes separating directory names). For Unix versions, the directory paths are the same, except slashes instead of backslashes separate directories.
This book uses Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) of the form
http://server.domain/path/file.html
In these URLs, server represents the name of the server on which you are running LiveWire, such as "research1" or "www," and domain represents your Internet domain name, such as "netscape.com" or "uiuc.edu." In general, items in italics in URLs are variables, and items in normal Courier font are literals.
This book uses the following typographical conventions:
if (x == 3) doSomething()