Product Reviews

Almost all the large Web sites that we use every day have one thing in common - they use databases. A database-driven Web site can replace hundreds of individual pages with one 'dynamic' page, which can be updated with relevant content. Unfortunately, writing this kind of Web site is very complicated, so most people hire a specialist Web programmer.

Symbiant's easyGen claims to let you write a database site with "no programming or database skills". It uses two common technologies, so should work with most business Web-hosting packages. You'll need either ASP support and read/write permissions for a Microsoft-friendly database, or PHP support and a MySQL database that accepts remote connections.

At Computer Buyer we run several database Web sites, so had everything we needed to try easyGen. We started a new project and were presented by the program's New Project wizard.

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This starts out well, asking you to name your work and choose whether your server uses PHP or ASP, but it soon gets complicated when you have to choose a data connector.

This links your Web site to its database. If you're using a remote MySQL database it's fairly straightforward, as long as you have all the relevant login information. If, however, you want to use an Access database it soon gets technical - you're asked to build a 'database connection string'. The tools provided are helpful if you know what one of these is, but beginners are likely to be confused. Although we found an explanation in the manual, this information should be integrated into the wizard itself.

Once you've connected your database, you're ready to build your Web site. You can work from scratch, but beginners will want to use the wizards. These allow you to create a page that reports information from a database, a form for adding and editing information in the database, a user registration page and a user login page. The wizards lay out each new page for you to make any design changes you want, and you can then export them onto your server. Unfortunately, the exported pages weren't perfect, with the Report wizard generating pages that worked well in Internet Explorer, but not in the FireFox browser.

Overall, easyGen 2 is disappointing. Those who understand the basics of programming Web databases might find it a helpful tool, but it's not easy enough for beginners.