Training Pages Launched

PRESS RELEASE — 12 OCTOBER 1998

GBdirect, specialists in Internet and Intranet development, announced the launch today of a free on-line database of training services. Accessible via the Internet to anyone with a standard Web browser, the service allows users to search for courses and products with particular keywords in the title, to browse via categories, and to customise their search to show only those listings which match particular criteria such as level of difficulty, delivery method and delivery location.

Companies wishing to list their products through the database can do so free of charge and are able to enter, alter and update their information at any time through the on-line forms, located at http://www.trainingpages.co.uk.

The database also gathers usage statistics and will shortly be enhanced to provide statistical analysis of the popularity of course titles, categories and keywords.

Mike Banahan, Managing Director of GBdirect said "For years I have been frustrated by how inconvenient it is to find out what courses are available and from whom. We felt that what the public needs is simple, convenient access to the collated information, rather than having to wade through piles of out-of-date catalogues or fruitlessly use generic Internet 'search engines.'" He added: "We decided to put this database together to demonstrate of our ability to build leading-edge on-line solutions whilst providing a useful service at the same time. We believe there is nothing in the world that is the equal of this system — the ability to update listings instantaneously, the collection of statistics, even the basic idea - we have looked for equivalents everywhere, but at the moment we think we are way ahead of even the States."

"The database is specific to the UK — we are likely to incorporate Ireland as well, if there is demand, but we think that it's important to provide a strong geographical focus. The problem with existing search techniques over the Internet is that they are not focussed enough, either on their specific category or their region. Training Pages addresses both those issues and goes well beyond in terms of the functions and features it provides."

Additional Information

The database currently lists over 1,000 training products in the categories of IT and Management training. The categories will be expanded over the following months to encompass all areas of training and products.

Listings will continue to remain free of charge.

Running costs of the system will be covered by a fee charged for on-page advertising and for detailed access to statistics and analysis.

Technical information about Training Pages

The Trainingpages database is a live on-line database accessible using standard web-browser technology via the Internet. It was written as a demonstrator project for web-based database technology using freely available software.

The underlying systems are based upon the Linux, Apache and the MySQL database products, with access software written in a mixture of C++, Perl and other languages by staff at GBdirect. Graphic design services were provided by Highlight Ltd.

The service incorporates features rarely found on the Internet (though hardly state-of-the-art) such as live graphics showing the popularity of courses and categories, plus the ability for companies themselves to sign-up and maintain their own information. It has the potential to integrate with the systems of the training companies to provide instantaneous visibility of the availability and costs of courses and products.

The use of on-line databases like this is expected to grow considerably over the next few years and this database will be enhanced and expanded to incorporate further capabilities over the next year or so. Security of the data is enhanced by the fact that whilst the webserver is publicly visible, the database is located behind a secure firewall which renders it inaccessible directly to the outside world. Maintenance software which is used to perform sensitive operations on the data can only be run from inside the firewall, providing additional integrity and reliability.

The webserver and public query software is independent of the particular database in use and with minor changes can be used with almost any SQL database product. We have no intention to switch from MySQL at present: it is both reliable and extremely fast, but a design goal was to be able to use other database products for similar applications in the future.

The bulk of the session-management and database manipulation software is written in C++ using in-house-developed libraries to provide hardware and database independence. All of the web page output is generated using our own template management technology, with HTML code largely absent from the query software: this is important to make it easy both to manage the look and style of the web pages as well as aiding the later deployment of this service in languages other than English.

The software used in the development and running of this site consists entirely of open-source software freely available from the appropriate download sites — it was at least in part our objective to demonstrate that the quality of such software is suitable for serious development work. The only non-public software is the CGI and maintenance code which was developed specifically for the project. At a later date we may well feel that the in-house software is suitable for public release also, but it is currently at an early revision and we do not wish yet to publish it.

The hardware is based on commodity products using standard PC components. The public webserver is currently using an AMD K6 266 and hosting several websites as well as Training Pages — it contains an SDL Riscom WAN card and acts as our leased-line router. Its current uptime (time since the last reboot) and load averages are: Up 112 days, 17 hours, 23 mins, 40 secs, loadfactor 0.02

The database server uses a Cyrix 233 processor and also provides central compilation services, dial-up access, fax gateway, central email, file-sharing and print-serving facilities to our offices, as well as during office hours acting as the local workstation for one of our developers. Most of the time it claims to be 99% idle, though we do at times offload the compilation work onto our twin-processor Quake-playing machine because we find it entertaining to watch the Unix 'make' command doing parallel compilation on a firebreathing beast. The dual-cpu box compiles and links all of the C++ code in about 50 seconds from a standing start.

If you would like to know more about this project or wish to discuss your own on-line or in-house database requirements, please contact GBdirect directly, where the team of Internet, Intranet and database specialists may be able to help you.