Quantnet: a Database-driven Online Repository of Scientific Information

In this study a framework for an online database-driven repository of information - QuantNet - is presented. QuantNet is aimed at easing the process of web publishing for those who are unfamiliar with technical details and markup languages. At the same time advanced users are provided with easy user style markup tools while flexible and trouble-free application administration is being a top priority. In this realm a special emphasis is placed on the construction of a metalanguage containing only simplest possible structures. Different stages - from low-level text processing via Atox to the transformation of XML documents via XSLT, PHP and mySQL - are thoroughly described. The motivation for further possible application extensions like DTD or preliminary document check based on analytic grammar form is provided. The presented framework should therefore be useful for anyone interested in simplifying the process of online publishing of structured information employing the broadest possibilities of XML and XSLT especially in conjunction with the development of a database-driven system.