First ASP Application - APP1 | AppNet | Vertical Framework

It was 1987 almost nobody had a proper Internet connection. There were Usenet Newsgroups via UUCP and Email at some Universities. These were terminal dial up sources of information including bulletin boards. You could get technical information, programs and scripts using Bulletin Board Services ("BBS") through networks including UUNET, or technical information from your local computer shop or shops for IBM & NCR. Book stores sometimes had at the very back or on a second floor random technology material or you ordered from a printed catalog at the cash desk. Very time consuming. Startup or entrepreneurial funding for this kind of development was non existent. Self funding and teaching the only solution at that time.

Universities did not have advanced courses and most engineers at IBM and Xilinx were not focused on customizable OS or open script based application platforms much less open source Unix or customizing Usenet. Regardless without their expertise and technology advancements we would never have been able to build this platform. Without the work of Andrew Tanenbaum the creator of Minix Unix and File System we would not have had the open source access we needed.

INDUSTRY VERTICAL APP1

Even identifying an industry or vertical in 1987 was different as you can discover by using the 1987 SIC Industry Codes which were only into an online searchable form in 2002 called NAICS Classification. We used SIC to understand the build needed and scale of possibilities. We realized the doors were open, technology was going to change and fast with online access.

So APP1 was 7361 Employment Agencies from the SIC Industry Codes. Next the tools to create and launch APP1.

TOOLS & COMPONENTS

To create a server that would have different industry verticals we needed to create our own source code repository. Different versions for different industry verticals. The first being Job Listings and employment related we had all the components or parameters to make work easily. Many of our friends looking for jobs had to get in a car and go down and view the local jobs board or get a referral from a friend. That was it.

If we created a package for Employment it would be a theme. Themes were industry verticals. Employment being the first and next finance and insurance for which we had enough understanding to pull together the parameters for that as well. To us possibilities were endless. Now to find the software package we could use. Or build it ourselves.

Most systems OS were closed, and even the terminal we had was built from many pieces we purchased from a computer shop with a dial up Hayes Modem that allowed us to get on UUNET. We spent hours just getting the dip switch settings to work on the hard drive we believe needed to download all the code. The first component we needed to find was the OS and File System.

The building blocks to create a programmable profile or theme package for each industry vertical needed to be inexpensive. The biggest obstacle was the closed compiled code and licensing. We needed something we could customize free and open source.

We were lucky to find Minix OS and early versions created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. It was a new open source OS with a File System. It also had one other significant benefit. It could be customized with C and it had a microkernel.

We downloaded that version 1.0 on eight disks instead of the hard drive as we needed to install on a rebuilt system. Our terminal stopped working after we installed it and it took days before it was up and running again.

The next on the list was whether we could customize the Minix OS with C and recompile. We tested and it worked. Once that was achieved we then started to look at the backend package framework to create the customized packages or themes for each vertical.

USENET versus APPNET

The design or architecture we were envisioning did not exist in any form so we decided to customize an existing platform. We had a very small team. The platform design was driven by customization to Usernet and Minix as well PS/2 to provide a system that was able to deliver multiple connections to a shared database. We needed to create a Users script for each Theme such as Employment for the new AppNet application server.

The first step was to adjust the code in a very primitive manner so that it would deliver the information for a specific industry vertical working on a customized Usernet version and Minix OS we called "MinixAPP version 1.0" and then work on the AppNet Application Server functions.

We created a script using Usenet as a template that would allow customization of unique fields for each Theme. We named this theme APP1. We named the new distribution or syndication system AppNet.

We created a backup code repository which had the files to download and install Minix APP OS 1.1 as well APP1 Usenet Reader using UUCP named “succinet”.

We then rewrote Minix again to respond to the new commands. We had a simple working application services platform called AppNet. It was both exciting and terrifying.

CONFIG FILES & MINIX-APP1.0 COMMANDS

BASIC CUSTOMIZABLE CONFIG FILES

The appfeed.conf key value, group and peer parameters had to be adjusted to work with a server that had different versions of the APPNewsGroups including:

• appsend.ctl
• appincoming.config
• appreaders.config
• appstorage.config
• appbuff.config
• appoverview.fmt
• appexpire.ctl
• and files that designated moderators.

It was not complex just time consuming. We created unique readers for each APP to be created in AppNet with unqiue appreaders.config files.

The first “Theme Package” APP1 for our code repository “Employment Descriptions and Listings” was called succinc-emp-1.0.

NEW "MINIX APP 1.0" COMMANDS

Append ”APP” to the beginning for Application commands for all Themes.

APPLIST - retrieve a list of “application newsgroups” available on the server
APPGROUP - select a specific “application newsgroup”
APPARTICLE - retrieve an “job description and listings” from a Usenet server
APPNEWSGROUPS - receive a list of “application newsgroups” created after a specific date and time
APPNEWNEWS - receive a list of “job description and listings” created after a specific date and time
APPNEXT - go to the next message in the “application newsgroup”
APPPOST - post a message or reply to an existing one
APPIHAVE - tell the server the client has an “job posting” it may want

Account APP Owner Controlled --> APPSENDME - returned list of "job Q&A postings" not yet posted (Moderation)

ACCOUNT, USER, MAKEFILE, UUCP DATA SYNC

ACCOUNT

The first step was to create a script for an account. We needed the Theme Managers to have access to the OS & AppNet Theme Files to update Job Descriptions much like Newsgroups. So the script was simple and followed the UUCP CNEWS Usenet protocol and format.

USER

Create APP Account UUCP Network ID or Hostname “appnet”

>Settings>App-Servers>Host Address>Port Number

Create Username

Create Password

MAKEFILE & UUCP

Makefile.in was designed for each Theme to have unique folder installation based on CNEWS  with unique directories.

The UUCP commands were used to sync files between systems and Users for that Theme Package.

Users included AppNet Users and AppNet Accounts. Registered AppNet User Account’s had permission to change Job Descriptions in AppNet Global Data Store which would use UUCP  to transfer and copy. AppNet used the HoneyDanBer UUCP which was later used by SunSolaris Servers.