There are several "standard" methods to accomplish this. Notice that even though the methods are "standard", most are also proprietary.

CGI	A programming method where communications are via the standard input and standard output. CGI programs may be compiled or interpreted. This technique is common on Unix servers.
ISAPI	A dll interface definition (api) which allows IIS/PWC to call a compiled program. Once loaded, the dll stays in memory. This is a serious problem when debugging an application, but gives significantly better performance once everything works.
NSAPI	A dll interface definition (api) which allows the Netscape internet server to call a compiled program. (I don't use this.)
IDC/HTX	Microsoft's proprietary interface which they wish would go away. In my opinion, this is one of the easiest methods to use - the only server configuration is an ODBC definition. The 2 files are interpreted.
ASP	Microsoft's proprietary interface which replaces IDC/HTX. This allows full programming using VB script. The program is interpreted.

Some abbreviations

• IIS - Microsoft Internet Information Server (for NT 4)
• PWS - Microsoft Personal Web Server - the Windows 95/98 version of IIS
• ASP - Active Server Pages

Yeah, it generates a "table", but each "row" is a separate table. And columns which don't contain data are simply omitted. The required amount of hand editing is unbelievable. Every cell has width and font tags. This really sucks.

However, saving a table to static html works pretty good.

Dim html_string As String

 html_string = "http://someSite.com/Somepage.cgi?Parm1=v1&Parm2=V2"
  
    ' New Window, do not add to history
 Call FollowHyperlink(html_string, , True, False)

Dim html_string As String
Dim Query_string As String
Dim Header As String

  html_string = "https://somesite.com/results.cfm?xx=1000"
  Query_string = "Crit1_FieldName=item" & _
                "&Crit1_Value=12345"

  Header = "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" & vbCrLf
  
     ' Display in a new Window, do not add to history
  Call FollowHyperlink(html_string, , True, False, _
          Query_string, msoMethodPost, Header)

• The header is from a Delphi help page.
• msoMethodPost requires adding MS Office Library (MSO97.dll) to the references.
• I wasted a full day on this - It does not work. This appears to be an undocumented MS Office design problem.
• See my discussion on why Posting is important in my Delphi section.
• I have not tested the code presented in the references below.

• Web Support in Microsoft Office Applications is a very long article with lots of good data on MS Access and other MS Office products. It even has information on producing and testing IDC/HTX files that actually query your database and display the results.

• HOWTO: Automate Internet Explorer to POST Form Data (Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 167658) contains example code for Visual Basic and Visual C++. Their VB code uses "Microsoft Internet Controls" (SHDOCVW.DLL) and contains a subroutine - PackBytes - that places a string into a byte array. This page also specifies the required header.

  Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

  If this page is no longer available, try searching for "167658".

From the menu, select

File / New... / Web Server Application

Basic .dpr code for ISAPI application.

uses
  WebBroker,
  ISAPIApp,
exports
  GetExtensionVersion,
  HttpExtensionProc,
  TerminateExtension;

URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Databases / WebAccess.html