Generic Information Server Toolkit 2.1.7

GIST is a tool kit for the rapid development of interactive web based information servers.

GIST removes the technical barriers traditionally associated with creating interactive web sites.

It has been specifically designed to allow user communities to share information and communicate more effectively without the need for a full-time technical web master.

GIST provides support for managing user definable information objects, so you dont write any CGI programs or SQL in your HTML, or worry about indexing your data: GIST does it for you.

You define your data and its structure and GIST takes care of adding, changing, deleting and indexing it, allowing you to focus on the important issues of providing the features and facilities your user community expect and demand.

Traditional approaches to web-based-publishing involve a centralised ``webmaster or group of webmasters responsible for the provision of information contained within the site and for its maintenance. As the site grows, the cost of maintenance increases.

The prototyping activities undertaken by the Joint Rresearch Center of the European Commission (JRC) provide an alternative approach to populating and maintaining a web site, in which each member of the user community is responsible for maintaining their own information. The G7/GELOS1 server is a working example of the technology involved.

GIST is an effort undertaken by the JRC to build on the success of this prototyping activity and to generalise their functionality in a reusable component library for the construction of dynamic, user community based Information Servers. GIST allows users without programming skills to create a web server with a data model and user interface of their own design.

GIST makes it easier to build an Information Server by providing the software components required for common tasks.

In particular GIST provides facilities for: submission of information by members of a user community modification and deletion of information presentation of information search and browse user registration and user interface configuration user authentication and authorisation automatic validation of user input server configuration and definition of policy rules Regardless of the style of information it contains any Information Server needs to allow its user community to interact with it; in particular to populate and maintain the contents of its information store, and to view the information contributed by other members of the community.

Search and browse facilities are indispensable for all but the smallest of databases; there is no point storing information if no-one can ever find it.

GIST ensures that users are prevented from changing information that they are not authorised to change, and that database integrity is maintained at all times.

Various configuration options are available so that the server may be tailored the server behaviour to the needs of the community; of particular note is the ability to define local policy rules to be applied when the information store is modified.