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.

The command interface — type W3Script and see results instantly.

LIST prints all records in active index order. The status bar shows the active database and table.

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 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.

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.

@ 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 permanent left sidebar with category pickers and action buttons.

Wizards open in the main area with a live W3Script preview.

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, run programs, and modify table structure. Every click generates a real W3Script command that echoes into the terminal — watch it to learn the language. Wizards (New table, Filter, Modify structure, report designer, …) open in the main area and show a live preview of the command they will run.

npm install
npm run dev        # http://localhost:5173

Production:

npm run serve      # builds, then serves everything on http://localhost:3000

LAN / Tailscale: the server binds to 0.0.0.0, so http://<tailscale-ip>:3000 works out of the box.

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

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->field arrow syntax; WebBase-III uses modern alias.field dot notation.

Cross-area field access: use alias.field dot notation anywhere an expression is accepted — SET FILTER TO, IF, REPLACE, LIST, INDEX ON.

Column ops that can invalidate an index (DROP, RENAME, ALTER type) drop all of the table's indexes and warn you to rebuild with INDEX ON.

Demo programs live in demos/*.prg and are the single source of truth: they are seeded into the program store on every server start, overwriting any store copy. Try DO inventory for a full interactive showcase (work areas, relations, indexes, forms).

Functions work anywhere an expression is accepted — IF, DO WHILE, STORE, REPLACE, INDEX ON, SET FILTER TO, etc.

W3Script supports both styles:

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()).

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

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.

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.