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I researched and tested several different approaches.

1. Microsoft FrontPage^® discussion groups.
2. Microsoft FrontPage^® database interface.
3. AspForums Forum software. (www.aspforums.com)
4. Manila (http://manila.userland.com/)
5. Web Crossing (www.webcrossing.com )
6. GenericDB ASP database interface (www.genericDB.com)

Although I have used FrontPage extensively, I had never really worked with the database interface nor the forms interface. I had set up one discussion group in the past but I hadn't thought of using it for individuals. I did think of Generation www.Y early on, but decided not to pursue it as their website had very little information publicly available, and they appeared to more  focused  on selling a particular "package" for teaching subjects.

Before reviewing the packages, let's review the ultimate requirements I had in mind. Although my main thrust was to improve communications with my students, I wanted to go beyond that and move to being able to do one-on-one communication via the web with individual students. This meant some main requirements were:

1. I could see several students' information at once, alphabetically or by class.
2. Students could only see their own information and none of the other students.
3. I could respond to a group of students at once, or at least be able just to type in a text box next to the record showing their entry.

With those ideas in mind, let's look at the options.

Microsoft FrontPage^® discussion groups.

This was my first thought. Setting up a discussion group in FrontPage^® is simply a matter of selecting the discussion web wizard while running on a FrontPage^® enabled server. It's clean, it's slick, it can be run in a protected web so users have to log in and no others can see it. For throwing together a quick discussion group, it's very good. However, it doesn't maintain messages in a database. Rather, it maintains them as individual text files, and keeps references in some hidden database. The result is that it's not possible to go straight to a particular message; you have to go to the table of contents page.

This would be acceptable for doing one-on-one discussions with students, where each has his or her own web. The downside is the teacher would have to go to each student's web. Even though multiple discussion groups can exist in one web, there is no way to keep them secure from others. Also, a teacher can't look at more than one student at once.

Creating each discussion web takes a couple of minutes, so with a lot of students it can be time consuming. I created twelve for the project with Amy Murphy, and that took about thirty minutes just to create all of the discussion webs. One other drawback it that it is not possible to expand and collapse threads, so the longer a discussion group is, the longer it takes to load the table of contents.

Microsoft FrontPage^® database interface

The database interface requires using ASP (Active Server Pages) to interface with the database. FrontPage^® creates the code for the Active Server Pages and, using the wizards, it's possible to add data to a database, extract data from a database and do limited searches and sorts. With FrontPage^® 2002, it's possible to edit a database through a browser without writing code. However, if you want to password protect the editing function, you have to hard code in the one username and password. It looks like it would be possible to have a user list, but it's not obvious how that would affect the rest of the information.

I ended up using this interface for the forms that students fill out in my class. I also learned enough that I converted my list of directories and owners for our website from an Excel sheet to a multi-table database

AspForums Forum software. (www.aspforums.com)

Free Software! That's about all it takes to sell me. This software is a series of ASP pages and a database for creating discussion forums and discussion groups. Since each post is a record in the database, and since the particular user who made the post is already recorded, I had hopes that I could modify the software to meet my requirements. Well, it turns out that to do so would require modifying code deep in several pages. Since I'm not that good of programmer, I decided not to modify it.

However, I did a short test of it as a discussion forum. It is better than the FrontPage^® discussion groups since threads expand and collapse. The administrator can also edit the database directly. I may use this in the future for a discussion forum if I need more functions than a discussion group gives me.

Manila (http://manila.userland.com/)

Manila is not free, but it is fancy. It's much more than discussion forum software and allows people to run entire web sites, edit it using a browser based interface, and post pictures or other types of files. Users can self-register. The drawback was that each user would need a separate site. However, for discussion software, it's quite good. It's definitely worth a second look.

Web Crossing (www.webcrossing.com )

I installed and ran the thirty day free trial with this. Not only is this very sophisticated discussion group software that allows multiple levels of discussions, easy permissions settings, modification and control of appearance, it also has a chat feature, as well as email for the users. Very powerful. Expensive. However, I am currently trying to convince the school to get a trial copy so we can test it as full-fledged discussion software.

GenericDB ASP database interface (www.genericDB.com)

This package held out the most hope. It's a series of ASP pages for reading, searching, and writing to databases. The author wrote it for his own use, then decided to distribute it FREE! Yes, that was the magic word! I've tested it an I like the ease with which a database can be accessed and the way that the records and fields returned can be specified. I highly recommend it. I've tried the examples, then extended them to a basic database I created. I intend to work more with this software because it looks like it is the best chance I have of coding something that will do what I want it to do.

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Created Fall, 2001

Last maintained 11/15/2003