ASF Public Databases: Security and Record Protection
The initial form for database selection also
asks for a password that will determine which
actions on what databases you can perform.
When you access a database for viewing you
will see the current records and, at the top of
the page, several buttons for updating the
database - Add, Modify, and Delete records (
possibly more if you have higher privileges)
Everyone is allowed to add new records to
public databases. To do so, simply press the Add
button and enter the information in the record
form. The specific instructions on the fields
for different databases are given farther down
in these instructions.
To Modify or Delete and existing record, first,
enter the record number in the field next to
action buttons and then press the button for the
desired action. However, you can only modify or
delete the unprotected records or the
records that are protected with the same
password as the one you specified when accessing
the database (exception: a person with ASF
privileges can modify or delete any record).
A record is considered unprotected if it
was created with a blank password.
In general, when accessing the databases, the
most convenient strategy for a Web user is to
always supply the same, non-empty, password.
That will allow you to modify any records you
have created earlier (as well as unprotected ones),
such as your record in the contact list, and
will ensure that any records you create are
protected.
When Adding or Modifying records, you will be presented with an
entry form for fields specific to the records of the particular
database. At the top of the form you will see a control that determines the
protection level of the new or modified record. The default is Maximum, i.e.,
the record will be protected at the level of access you have (
Note to ASF personnel: Unless you change that setting, the resulting record
will be protected from modification by anyone outside of ASF -
provided you logged in with your high level of priviliges). The Minimum
setting will remove all protection of the record, i.e., anyone on the Internet
will be able to modify or delete it. The "As is" setting choice appears
only when modifying a record and will leave protection unchanged
(same as it was before modification).
The databases are the property of ASF.
Any user protection can be over-ridden by ASF
staff. ASF reserves the right to remove any
information deemed unsuitable, irrelevant,
offensive, or contrary to ASF goals.
These ASF databases are provided for the
greater convenience of our users. Please, do not
abuse them. Security and access violations are
automatically reported to the ASF Page
administrator.
ASF Public Databases: General Description of
Records
The primary fields have to be entered in order
to create a new record. In Netscape and compatible
browsers, these fields have bold prompts and
appear above the action buttons (OK and Cancel).
Most fields that you supply in order to create
an entry in a database (e.g., an event in the
calendar database) allow you free text input.
Some fields, such as descriptions can be
arbitrarily long, multi-lined input (there is a
limit of about 30K per text area, though).
Please, keep such fields reasonably short to
avoid excessive storage.
Normal formatting HTML tags (italic, strong,
new line, etc.) and links can be used in the free
format text fields (avoid them in specific
fields, such as phone numbers or e-mail addresses, which should be entered exactly as specified).
DO NOT USE Form, Frame, HTML, Body,
Head, applet and other active tags. They will be
stripped or suppressed.
You can use different encoding, e.g., KOI8 for
Cyrillic, in the free format fields. If you do
so, it is a good practice to identify the encoding
in the header information for the entry (e.g., in
a Calendar database entry show KOI8 in
parenthesis following the title of the event,
then insert your Cyrillic text in the
description).
Enjoy!
ASF Public Databases: Specific Database Information
Contact List
For information on suggested and allowed field
content,
see general
description of database fields.
For information on record protection,
see description of Public Databases security.
For help on other databases,
see general
information on ASF Public Databases.
The records of this database are sorted
alphabetically by last, first name.
The primary fields, at least one of which has
to be entered in order to create a new record,
are the last and first names.
Enter the First and Last names in the respective
fields of the entry form.
In the database this information will appear with the
last name in front and separated by comma from the first name.
You do not have to enter secondary fields,
but the information entered in these fields will
make your record more useful. The secondary
fields are:
- Organization
- Enter the name of your organization or leave
blank for none.
- Address
- Postal address, including country. You have
three lines, one under another to enter your or
your organization's address.
- E-mail
- Enter you complete email address. If you have
more than one e-mail address and you wish to
specify additional ones, do not enter these
here. This field is for primary e-mail address
only and will be turned into a link in the
database. Additional addresses together with
explanation on when to use them can be entered
into Additional Information field.
- Web site
- If you have a Web site, you can enter your URL
here (only the primary one, please; see above
for e-mail). If you do not specify the Internet
protocol (e.g., my.site.com), http specification
will be added (http://). Otherwise, the entry
will be left as you have typed it (e.g.,
if you have an ftp site, you can enter
ftp://my.ftp.site.com).
- Phone
- Your voice number. Do not forget to enter
country and area code. Suggested format is
011-111-222-2222 (assuming 7 digits number). You
can specify more than one number, just separate
them with commas. You also can enter short
explanations (e.g., office number).
- Fax
- Fax number or numbers. Same conventions as
for Phone, see above.
- ASF Mailing Lists
- You can select on which if any ASF mailing
lists you want your name to appear. By default,
your name will be placed on all lists. If you
do not wish that, please, select one of the
options. Select None if you do not want to
receive any mail generated from ASF mailing lists.
- Additional information
- You can enter any text you wish here (e.g.,
additional addresses, explanations of your
organization's or your interest in ASF., etc.).
However, general comments on ASF and ASF page are
more appropriate for a Guest Book entry, and
appeals or announcements from your organization
are more effective as an entry on the Bulletin
Board.
- Pledge
- You may want to pledge a small amount to help
ASF cover the cost of our Internet presence. You
are not obligated to do so. The default value for
this field is None and you have to change it to
one of the amounts in the list to activate a
pledge. This information is not recorded nor
displayed as part of the database record.
Specifying a pledge amount will generate an
informational message to ASF. It is only a
pledge; we do not collect any contributions
on-line or from credit cards. If you make a
pledge, you should look up How to contribute
with information on ASF tax-exempt status and
the address to send a check to. We at ASF deeply
appreciate any donation you may wish to make to
help us.
Guest Book
For information on suggested and allowed field content,
see general description of database fields.
For information on record protection,
see description of Public Databases security.
For help on other databases,
see general information on ASF Public Databases.
The records of this database are sorted by
the time of entry, with new records added to
the end of the database list.
The primary fields, at least one of which has
to be entered in order to create a new record,
are the last and first names and the subject.
Enter the First and Last names in the respective
fields of the entry form.
Enter a short descriptive Subject, or title for
your record. In the database this information will
appear with title on the first line followed
by the first and last names and the time of submission.
You do not have to enter secondary fields, but the
information entered in these fields will make your record
more useful. The secondary fields are
- E-mail
- Enter you complete email address. If
you have more than one e-mail address and
you wish to specify additional ones, do not
enter these here. This field is for primary
e-mail address only and will be turned into
a link in the database. Additional addresses
can be entered together with explanation on when
to use them into the Message field.
- Message
- You can enter any text you wish here (e.g.,
additional addresses, explanations of your
organization's or your interest in ASF, etc.).
However, we mostly expect to see here general comments
on ASF, our work and ASF page. Appeals or announcements
from your organization are more effective as an
entry on the Bulletin Board.
- Pledge
- You may want to pledge a small amount to help ASF
cover the cost of our Internet presence. You are not
obligated to do so. The default value for this field
is None and you have to change it to one of the amounts
in the list to activate a pledge. This information is
not recorded nor displayed as part of the database record.
Specifying a pledge amount will generate an informational
message to ASF. It is only a pledge; we do not
collect any contributions on-line or from credit
cards. If you make a pledge, you should look up How to contribute
with information on ASF tax-exempt status and
the address to send a check to. We at ASF deeply appreciate any donation you may wish to make to help us.
Calendar
For information on suggested and allowed field content,
see general description of database fields.
For information on record protection,
see description of Public Databases security.
For help on other databases,
see general information on ASF Public Databases.
The records of this database are sorted by the date of the event and
its title.
The primary fields, at least one of which has to be entered in order to
create a new record, are the year, month, day and the title.
Enter the year, month and date information by
selecting from the respective lists of the entry
form. For prolonged (several days) events, enter
the beginning date and provide duration and closing date in the
text of Description (see below). Enter a short
descriptive Title for the event. In the
database this information will appear with date
on the first line followed by the title.
You do not have to enter secondary fields,
but the information entered in these fields will
make your record more useful. The secondary fields
are
- Time
- Enter the time of the start of the event.
- Place
- Enter short designation for event's venue. Complete address and
directions can be provided within description field.
- Description
- You can enter any text you wish here (e.g., additional addresses,
directions, explanations of the event, etc.).
However, try to keep it from being more than a couple of
paragraphs long. If more space is truly required, it
would be better to e-mail us a complete
document with the description of your event so it can be stored separately
from the database with a link pointing to it.
ASF Home Page