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Customer - a customer is a person who is visiting the merchant's website or receives e-mails from the merchant. Customers input information into @-Manager via HTML forms on the website. Also See: Merchant Database - a database system for storing data on a computer. A database is made up of several tables that save a specific set of data called fields. For example, a simple contact manager table may store the fields:
Also See: Keyed Tables, Table Definitions Hidden Fields - are a way of embedding data in an HTML form that the browser does not display but is sent back to the server for processing. Hidden fields can be particulary helpful when coupled with JavaScript to create values. For example, you may want to store the date that a form was submitted. You can create a hidden field that is set to todays date using JavaScript. When the form is submitted to the server the @-Manager will store it with all the other data the customer submitted. HTML Mail - Email that can contain elements of webpages, like fonts sizes, colors, images, and clickable links. Note that not all email clients implement HTML email in the same way, and some (AOL) don't allow it at all. Keyed Tables - If a table is defined to be 'keyed', the first field (called the key field) for each record must be unique. If a users tries to enter a new record with a value for the key field that already exists, the @-Manager will not insert a new record but will update the pre-existing record (how it updates the data is defined in the [table].setup file). In general it is best to use keyed tables when you want the most recent data and non-keyed when you want to store all entries. For example, a contact list should be keyed, probably on a person's e-mail. This way an e-mail will only exist once. Otherwise you could send multiple e-mails to the same box when bulk mailing. An example of a good non-keyed database would be a comment form. You may want to let the same person submit more than one comment and keep them all without overwriting previous ones. Also See: Database Mail Merge (Data Merge) - is a technique for personalizing bulk e-mails by embedding dynamic text from a datasource with the static text of the main message. The @-Manager allows you to merge any field of a table along with other sources into your bulk e-mails. (You can also do mail/data merge with HTML pages that the system generates) Merchant - the site owner or administrator. The @-Manager merchant interface enables the user to view, search, edit, add, delete, and export files, and to e-mail to a set of customers. Recursive Search - Recursive seraches let you do search-within-a-search. This allows you to search a table on multiple fields via multiple single field searches. Table - See Database Table Definition - A table definition is an @-Manager file that specifies the number, names and types of fields used in a database table. Templates - HTML pages that contain static content along with embedded tags that the @-Manager uses to create web pages and e-mails. Templates allow you to determine the look (theme) and content of your dynamically generated files, by adding your own logos and graphics. |
