iWander Highlights & Features

The following is a list of some of the iWander web site's more interesting features:

• Visitors to the iWander web site can virtually wander regions of waypoints without ever leaving the keyboard.
• Visual images of the (real or imaginary) regions, waypoints or views are presented on every page.
• Links to other pages that provide additional information about regions, waypoints or views are provided
• A running log of the points virtually visited is kept that shows thumbnail images of the stopping points as well as course directions, distances and trip totals.
• iWander allows wanderers to choose from a set of pre-defined vessels (modes of transportation) that have associated traveling speeds.

Of special interest to administrators and engineers, the iWander web site:

• Has been implemented using Linux operating system, Apache web server software, a MySQL Relational Database Management System, Perl, Perl CGI and Perl DBI modules, JavaScript, HTML as well as many other technolgoies used during development
• The iWander web site can be configured in either a two- or three-tier Internet environment, having the web server and database servers on the same or separate Linux systems.
• Administrator Operations are provided on separate pages that allow users that are curious about the underlying data model to view the contents of the iWander database.
• A application configuration (.conf) file controls whether database connections are made to a local or remote MySQL database.
• The same .conf file can allow site administrators to enable or disable a special debugging mode.
• When the debug mode is enabled, additional administrative operations are available (SQL Deletes and Inserts). Debug mode also makes the values of state variables and other parameters visible as the application is running.
• Steps were taken to provide an appropriate level of security on the system on which iWander executes.