WebBase-III
dBASE III is back. In your browser. USE customers like it's 1984.
Remember the dot prompt? Before SQL won, before ORMs, before anyone said "full-stack" — there was dBASE III. You typed USE customers, then LIST, and your data was just there. WebBase-III brings that whole world back: the terminal, the language, BROWSE, @ SAY GET forms, .prg programs, indexes, reports — rebuilt from scratch as a modern web app with its own interpreter in TypeScript, backed by Node.js, WebSockets, and SQLite.
Try it in one click — no install:
The Codespace installs dependencies and starts the dev server automatically. Open the forwarded port 5173 and you're at the dot prompt.
Screenshots
Terminal REPL
The command interface — type W3Script and see results instantly.
LIST — tabular record display
LIST prints all records in active index order. The status bar shows the active database and table.
Indexing & SEEK
INDEX ON name TO BYNAME creates a SQLite index and activates it — subsequent LIST output is sorted alphabetically. SEEK "Delta NV" jumps the record pointer to the first match in O(log n).
BROWSE — editable grid
BROWSE opens a spreadsheet-style grid. Records are shown in active index order. Tab/Enter to edit a cell, Ctrl+N for a new row, Delete to remove a row, Esc to return to the terminal.
Program editor
EDIT <name> opens the built-in .prg source editor. Programs support the full W3Script language: DO CASE/ENDCASE, DO WHILE/ENDDO, IF/ENDIF, form layouts, and all data commands. Ctrl+S saves, Esc cancels.
Form engine — @ SAY GET / READ
@ row,col SAY "label" GET variable lays out character-cell form fields. READ renders them as a live form and waits for the user to fill in values and submit.
The Assistant — sidebar
The permanent left sidebar with category pickers and action buttons.
The Assistant — New table wizard
Wizards open in the main area with a live W3Script preview.
Features
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| W3Script interpreter | dBASE III command dialect: navigation, filters, variables, loops, conditionals, forms, programs |
| BROWSE grid | Inline cell editing, keyboard nav, index-ordered display |
| Form engine | @ ROW,COL SAY … GET character-cell layout with READ |
| Indexing | INDEX ON, SEEK, FIND — active index controls all record order |
| DO CASE | Multi-branch conditional, OTHERWISE fallback |
| Built-in functions | EOF(), BOF(), FOUND(), RECNO(), SUBSTR(), STR(), AT(), CTOD(), DTOC() and more |
| Program files | Save, edit, and run .prg scripts with DO / EDIT |
| The Assistant | Permanent left sidebar — open databases/tables, browse, filter, index, search, design reports, run programs without typing |
| Multi-user | Each WebSocket connection gets its own isolated interpreter session |
| Persistent storage | better-sqlite3 with WAL mode — databases survive server restart |
The Assistant
The sidebar on the left drives everything without typing: open or create databases and tables, browse and filter data, build indexes, search, design and run reports, and run programs. Every click generates a real W3Script command that echoes into the terminal — watch it to learn the language. Wizards (New table, Filter, report designer, …) open in the main area and show a live preview of the command they will run.
Quick start
npm install
npm run dev # http://localhost:5173Production:
npm run serve # builds, then serves everything on http://localhost:3000LAN / Tailscale: the server binds to 0.0.0.0, so http://<tailscale-ip>:3000 works out of the box.
Example session
USE DATABASE mydb
CREATE TABLE customers (name CHAR(40), phone CHAR(20), country CHAR(30))
USE customers
APPEND RECORD
REPLACE name WITH "Acme Corp", phone WITH "555-1234", country WITH "BE"
APPEND RECORD
REPLACE name WITH "Zeta Ltd", phone WITH "555-5678", country WITH "NL"
INDEX ON name TO BYNAME
LIST * sorted A→Z
SEEK "Zeta Ltd" * jump to record instantly
BROWSE * open editable grid
SET FILTER TO country == "BE"
LIST * filtered view
SET FILTER TO * clear filter
W3Script command reference
Work areas
WebBase-III supports unlimited work areas — each independently holding a table, record pointer, filter, and index. Link areas by key field using SET RELATION TO for relational data access. Cross-area field access uses alias.field dot notation.
Note: dBASE III supported a maximum of 10 work areas (DOS file handle limit). WebBase-III has no such limit. dBASE III used
alias->fieldarrow syntax; WebBase-III uses modernalias.fielddot notation.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
SELECT <alias> |
Activate (or create) a work area by name |
USE <table> [ALIAS <name>] |
Open table in active area; optional alias override |
SET RELATION TO <expr> INTO <alias> |
Link active area to another; auto-seeks on every navigation |
SET RELATION TO |
Clear relation on active area |
LIST [col, alias.col, ...] |
List records; optional column list with cross-area fields |
LIST AREAS |
Show all open work areas, pointers, indexes, and relations |
CLOSE |
Close active area's table |
CLOSE ALL |
Close all work areas, reset to single empty area 1 |
Cross-area field access: use alias.field dot notation anywhere an expression is accepted — SET FILTER TO, IF, REPLACE, LIST, INDEX ON.
Data & navigation
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
USE <table> |
Select a table; restores any saved active index |
USE DATABASE <name> |
Open a named SQLite database |
LIST |
Print records in active index order (up to 500) |
LIST STRUCTURE |
Show column schema |
LIST TABLES |
Show all tables with record counts |
LIST DATABASES |
Show all databases on disk (alias: LIST DBS) |
BROWSE |
Open the editable grid |
CLEAR |
Clear terminal output |
CREATE TABLE <n> (col TYPE, ...) |
Create a table |
DROP TABLE <name> |
Delete a table |
APPEND RECORD |
Insert a blank row |
DELETE / DELETE ALL |
Delete current or all records |
PACK |
VACUUM the SQLite file |
GO TOP / GO BOTTOM / GO <n> |
Move record pointer |
SKIP <n> |
Move pointer forward/back |
REPLACE <field> WITH <val>, ... |
Update field(s) on current row |
REPLACE ALL <field> WITH <val>, ... |
Update all (filtered) rows |
SET FILTER TO <expr> |
Set a WHERE clause; empty clears it |
Indexing & search
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
INDEX ON <expr> TO <tag> |
Create index on expression; sets it active immediately |
SET INDEX TO <tag> |
Activate a previously created index |
SET INDEX TO |
Clear active index — restores natural insert order |
REINDEX |
Rebuild SQLite indexes for current table |
LIST INDEXES |
Print all indexes for current table with * active marker |
SEEK <expr> |
Position record pointer at first index match |
FIND <string> |
Alias for SEEK (unquoted string — dBASE III legacy form) |
Reports
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
CREATE REPORT <name> |
Create a new report definition (opens JSON editor) |
MODIFY REPORT <name> |
Edit an existing report definition |
REPORT FORM <name> |
Run report — ASCII to terminal + HTML preview panel |
LIST REPORTS |
List all saved report definitions |
DELETE REPORT <name> |
Delete a report definition |
Programs
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
DO <name> |
Run a saved .prg program |
EDIT <name> |
Open .prg source editor |
LIST PROGRAMS |
Show all saved programs |
Demo programs live in
demos/*.prgand are the single source of truth: they are seeded into the program store on every server start, overwriting any store copy. TryDO inventoryfor a full interactive showcase (work areas, relations, indexes, forms).
Variables & I/O
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
STORE <val> TO <var> |
Assign a variable |
INPUT "prompt" TO <var> |
Collect keyboard input |
@ r,c SAY "text" GET <var> |
Define a form field |
READ |
Display the form and wait for submit |
Control flow
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
IF <cond> … ENDIF |
Conditional block |
DO WHILE <cond> … ENDDO |
Loop |
DO CASE … ENDCASE |
Multi-branch conditional (CASE, OTHERWISE) |
HELP |
Print command reference |
QUIT |
Exit |
Built-in functions
Functions work anywhere an expression is accepted — IF, DO WHILE, STORE, REPLACE, INDEX ON, SET FILTER TO, etc.
| Function | Returns |
|---|---|
EOF() |
True if record pointer is past last record |
BOF() |
True if record pointer is before first record |
FOUND() |
True if last SEEK / FIND matched |
RECNO() |
Current record number |
RECCOUNT() |
Total records in current table |
UPPER(str) |
Uppercase |
LOWER(str) |
Lowercase |
TRIM(str) |
Strip leading and trailing spaces |
LTRIM(str) |
Strip leading spaces only |
SUBSTR(str, start, len) |
Substring — 1-based; len optional (to end) |
LEN(str) |
String length |
AT(needle, haystack) |
1-based position; 0 if not found (case-sensitive) |
STR(num, len, dec) |
Number to right-justified string; default len=10, dec=0 |
VAL(str) |
String to number; non-numeric → 0 |
INT(n) |
Truncate toward zero |
ABS(n) |
Absolute value |
SPACE(n) |
String of n spaces |
REPLICATE(str, n) |
Repeat string n times |
DATE() |
Today as MM/DD/YY |
DTOC(date) |
Date to display string MM/DD/YY |
CTOD(str) |
Display string MM/DD/YY to ISO date |
Boolean literals
W3Script supports both styles:
| Syntax | Value |
|---|---|
TRUE / FALSE |
Boolean true/false |
.T. / .TRUE. |
Boolean true (dBASE III style) |
.F. / .FALSE. |
Boolean false (dBASE III style) |
Boolean values display as .T. / .F. in output to match dBASE conventions.
Logical operators are accepted in both styles too: NOT / .NOT., AND / .AND., OR / .OR. (e.g. DO WHILE .NOT. EOF()).
BROWSE grid keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Navigate cells |
| Enter / F2 | Edit selected cell |
| Tab / Shift+Tab | Move right / left |
| Ctrl+N | New row |
| Delete | Delete current row |
| F5 | Refresh from DB |
| Esc | Exit grid, return to terminal |
Architecture
server/
index.ts Node.js HTTP + WebSocket server (port 3000)
Session.ts Per-connection session: parses commands, drives Executor
SessionManager.ts Tracks all active sessions
ServerDatabaseBridge.ts IDatabaseBridge impl wrapping better-sqlite3
ProgramStore.ts .prg program storage in data/system.sqlite3
IndexStore.ts Index metadata + active index in data/system.sqlite3
src/
interpreter/
Lexer.ts Tokenises W3Script input (case-insensitive)
Parser.ts Recursive-descent AST builder
Executor.ts Async AST runner; manages db/table/filter/vars/rowPtr/activeIndex
Builtins.ts Stateless built-in function implementations
terminal/
Terminal.ts REPL UI — command history, multi-line block accumulation
ui/
Grid.ts BROWSE spreadsheet — inline cell editing, keyboard nav
FormLayout.ts @ SAY GET form engine — character-cell coordinates
ProgramEditor.ts .prg source editor UI
ws/
WsClient.ts Browser WebSocket client
Running tests
npm test # unit + integration tests (Vitest) npx playwright test # end-to-end browser tests (requires dev server running)
The Playwright suite (tests/integration.spec.ts, tests/crm.spec.ts) drives a real browser against the running app and covers navigation, filters, indexing, programs, forms, and BROWSE.
License
AGPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.md.
Why AGPL? WebBase-III is a toy, and the license keeps it that way: anyone can use it, fork it, and learn from it, but nobody can take it closed and sell it as a hosted service without giving their changes back. If you want to run it, hack it, or ship features from your dBASE memories — that's exactly what it's for.