I have been assigned the task of creating a MySQL database which I will host on a server and create a website for a product my friend is selling. The database will store site information such as order information. I have little knowledge of HTML so my solution would be to use a website creater (weebly) and design it. There are then two routes I could take for accessing my database. I am limited to what I can do because all I know is java, c#, and c++. I figured I could create a java applet (which I could easily do) and embed the code of the code of the applet in an applet tag in my weeblys site. There is functionality to embed HTML code in the designer. Using the applet, with my java knowledge I figured I could easily access and insert/extract data from my hosted database. I know that java applets require the JRE and Java browser extension to run, this made me a little hesitant about doing this. Would that be a fine way to approach this project? I need my website to access my database, should I do this in java, or in php. What would be the correct thing for me to do?
What you're describing doesn't sound like a good idea.
First of all, Java Applets are an obsolete technology. The Java plugin isn't nearly as common now as it was in 1998, and security people have been advising that people disable it for years due to a long string of holes in its security model.
Second, it sounds like you're planning on giving the applet direct access to your database. This would require that you make your database externally accessible, which will make access control and data validation difficult.
The standard way to implement this sort of thing is to write a server-side web application (you can use PHP, any one of various server-side Java systems, ASPX, or one of many other platforms) that interacts with the database and generates web pages on demand. The database is hidden behind a firewall, the web application code handles access control and data validation, and the client doesn't need to run unsafe code.
Related
I am really a beginner in delphi, as the client request the project to be done in delphi, so I have to ask to get some help as possible as I can. This project will be involved in HTML5 and websockets as well, so there are some questions I need your advices.
Sorry let me explain more, this application have two parts mainly, one is HTML5 client web app (this app will be loaded from web server, and run locally in browser), and the other is its service located in server. The HTML5 web app is doing some product editing job, as well send its final output to server, during this process, there will be many communications between client app and service, and I planed to use Websockets.
I did plan this application in HTML5 and Node.js before, but as client send request to ask for the Delphi XE as primary development tool also it will be compiled to DLL (ISAPI, have to be) at last. For consistency of UI, I also was required to use uniGUI (http://www.unigui.com/demo)for Delphi. Now I have these questions:
Is there any other way to do this application with HTML5 as web front exclude uniGUI in Delphi?
What good libraries support Websockets in Delphi?
What book you can recommend me to read, as I don't know Delphi at all.
Thanks.
1: yes, make a "single page app" (static html + js) and communicate with server using xml or json.
At least with indy 10 it is quite straight forward to implement static file serving (response.contentstream := tfilestream.create(sfilename) or something like that)
2: yes, if you search for it on google you will find some :)
WebSocket server implementations for Delphi
btw, I'm busy with delphi socket.io implementation, which makes it easier to use websockets instead of plain low level tcp-like websockets itself
Is there any other way to do this application with HTML5 as web front exclude uniGUI in Delphi?
First concept : HTML5 applications are a bunch of HTML files and JS's wich can be processed by browsers.
Second concept : You need an application that can bind HTTP queries and return files from the first concept.
Third concept (paradigm) : With first two concepts, a third concept arises. Dynamic HTML. What is dynamic HTML? HTML that generates at runtime at the backend server and/or at frontend with JS.
Solution :
Yes, with Delphi as a backend server you can manipulate and return HTML5 views, if you know (MVC paradigmn for example) you can program an HTTPServer application that binds HTTP request from network and responses your HTMLs and JS.
What good libraries support Websockets in Delphi?
You need a multilayer library. The best library I know is mORMot. mORMot is like a swiss razor for Object Pascal.
You can create an HTTP server with websocket published interfaces. mORMot's Site
What book you can recommend me to read, as I don't know Delphi at all.
I have more than 10 years with Delphi and Free Pascal and I didn't read a book at all. But I read a lot from internet and a lot of computer architecture and another languages like C and C++.
If you like Delphi there are tons of documentation via Internet. I cannot recomend you a book because I will lie you.
We have some JSP code to run in our pages.
There is a UI designer who will constantly update the UI but does not have Tomcat server. We prefer he doesn't because he isn't a programmer.
However, it is getting annoying to have to cut and paste the JSP related code each time he updates the UI.
Is there anyway to handle this issue? We prefer to keep the same files, but still have it so he can see his UI work without worrying about the JSP and when he checks in the new files, we don't have to cut and paste our JSP related code.
One example of such code, is that there are certain navigation menu items which are displayed depending on the user.
We are using Tomcat authentication. We could I suppose use AJAX to obtain the user information, but is that less secure? Everything else in the application is AJAX.
The problem here is that this person is not working with the team. Rather, he's creating work for them... and it goes both ways. Read on.
I both do and manage front end development. If this UI person was on my team, I would force him to set up a Tomcat server. He just needs to learn some things.
In effect, when implemented properly, JSP is not much different from any other server-side markup language for views, such as Rails + ERB, PHP, .NET etc... even Javascript templating engines (mustache, handlebars, etc.). The same condition checks, for-loops, auth checks - all basic view-layer logic that is needed is available and usable.
If he's on a Java project / team, he needs to learn the Java front-end. It's that simple.
His main tasks should be basic, and frankly, he shouldn't even need to install a Java IDE to do them. They are:
Get/push source code + analyze diffs (any source control client)
Build / deploy latest to his local environment (scripts or .bat files)
Work on the running app*
(*) The last part is where things get tricky. If you work directly on the running server and then accidentally run a fresh deploy before copying over your updates, you're screwed. If you use symlinks (which are also available in Windows), there may be files that only appear post-compilation, or locks, or sync issues when getting latest code - all creating problems.
The way I have found that works best is to work on the code repo location (pre-build), and create two scripts:
Build+deploy - stops running server, blows out directories and caches, builds latest, and redploys
Update - Synchronizes the View files and any other necessary directories with the deployment target. You must be sure to disable hot-deploy in the Tomcat config, or you'll get memory leak errors.
That said, and it should be obvious by now: Java is one of the most difficult ecosystems to develop UI's for. The compiled nature and complex environment requirements make development slow and tedious, with significant dependencies on different people or systems to make a decent product.
JSP itself, while capable as described above, is almost always organized badly, with various ways of includes, tagfiles, partials, frameworks - it becomes a UI person's worst nightmare. GSP (from Grails) solves a lot of the organizational issues, but will require flexibility from the dev team. Even then it is not an "ideal" solution.
JSP syntax - JSTL, C:tags, etc. creates even greater headaches. Front-end people who do not program, don't use IDE's and therefore don't have a way of looking up methods, objects, parameters etc. when writing or customizing conditional logic or loops. The dev team can help by pre-writing these out on the page, but any time there are changes or enhancements needed, it requires meetings, conversations, and compromise.
In the long run, you should abstract the Java app from a separate, more flexible, more capable front-end technology stack, using REST / JSON-based services to talk between the two. (Side note: For performance / apps with scale, ensure you are using either a custom protocol or Web Sockets).
My preference is node.js, because front-end developers can stick with the language they will know best: Javascript / JSON. But it could be anything that your particular front-enders are comfortable with and can do design with.
The key is to eliminate bottlenecks on both front-end and back end. Both tracks should be able to develop and iterate quickly, with the RESTFUL API being the key point of collaboration.
Lastly, for those of you who are aspiring front-end developers / designers but only know Java (or some other server-side technology), I CHALLENGE YOU to learn something new. User-facing technologies are in a constant state of change, and more recently that change has accelerated. If you want to have UI-competitive products, you need to invest in technologies that will make them competitive.
I am planning to create a HTML5 web application. I have a couple of queries though-:
I wished to know if it is possible to create a business oriented application using HTML5 only without a backbone like Asp.Net. I found a lot of articles on google suggesting the use of Asp.Net MVC, or ASP.Net website as a base template but none suggesting a HTML+js alone approach.
Given the web standards update for VS 2010 SP1 and js libraries like Modernizr, is it possible to create an app completely in HTML5 using Visual Studio.
You're eventually going to want to do some server side work, and for that you would need either Java, PHP, or ASP set up to intercept and process commands... you could go ahead and create everything in HTML+JS alone, and use the file writer for "permanent storage" but that's really cutting corners, and can lead to catastrophe down the line depending on where exactly you are trying to take this application of yours.
I want to develop a delphi application with an HTML/CSS graphical user interface, not necessarily running from within a web browser. I want to do this do create a richer graphical user interface with animations etc. and break away from normal VCL components / Windows look. Any suggestions?
HTML and CSS won't deliver animations or a Rich User Interface to your feet. Far from it in fact. Quite the opposite. You will need to invest in a toolkit to provide that sort of functionality and almost certainly involve JavaScript. And even if you don't want your eventual application hosted in a web browser, your application will itself have to host a web browser to render your HTML/CSS/JavaScript UI, and you will then have a much more difficult job of connecting your GUI to your application logic (unless you do actually embrace a web application architecture).
Delphi (or any Windows application development language for that matter) gets you much, much further down the road towards a more simply, effectively and quickly implemented Rich User Interface than HTML or CSS.
If you don't like the look and feel of the standard Delphi controls (which in essence is what you are saying) there are numerous alternative libraries available.
Also bear in mind however that when someone uses a Windows application they expect it to look and behave a certain way to a large extent. Using fancy, web based paradigm's in a desktop application simply for the sake of it is likely to confuse and frustrate users if taken too far.
I'm all for user interfaces breaking with convention where it leads to a more intuitive user interface, but simply being "prettier" does not necessarily lead in that direction and is just as misguided as dogmatically adhering to convention.
In one of my applications I have an an embedded browser and I have implemented the IDocHostUIHandler interface. This allows me to expose a COM object via the "GetExternal" method. I simply have a COM object that exposes methods and properties of my application which makes them available to the web pages hosted inside the embedded browser.
So the script in my web pages has lines like "external.DoSomething()" and "i=external.GetThisValue()". So, for example, behind button onclick events you can run a method of your application (implement in the main form, in the COM object itself, or whatever you like).
This site has lots of info on embedding a browser in your Delphi app:
http://www.delphidabbler.com/articles?article=22
It can certainly be cumbersome to implement a lot of this stuff and in many cases there are probably better options. But for my specific purpose I am able to offer a "home page" which can easily be modified to change its layout, look and even expose more (or less) functionality as required by myself or my users.
If you want a Delphi program with a better-looking interface, HTML is really not what you're looking for. What you really need are better-looking VCL controls.
Take a look at TMS Smooth Controls, for example. If you're on Delphi 2009 or 2010, you can get it as a free download here. That's one of many component libraries that can bring a slicker user interface to your program.
HTML / CSS offers some nice features which are (not yet?) available in Delphi and the VCL. They are also a good starting point for client/server programming, separating the user interface and the business logic is a key factor here.
One popular library for Delphi is the extpascal project:
ExtPascal is an Object Pascal (Delphi,
FreePascal/Lazarus) wrapper/binding
for Ext JS, a complete GUI Ajax
framework, made in JavaScript, for
Rich Internet Application (RIA)
development. ExtPascal lets you use
Ext JS from Object Pascal commands
issued by the server. It brings the
structure and strict syntax of the
Object Pascal for programming the web
browser. ExtPascal will wrap Draw2d
into future releases.
Some demos are online here and here.
p.s. and I really like the HTML / CSS support for element and font sizes in relative units (for exampe percent). Combined with browser zoom in / zoom out and WCAG, user interface ergonomy can not be much better.
HTML Option 1
If you relly want to use HTML+CSS(+JavaScript) to build a GUI, you can have a look at HTML Applications, a very fascinating concept from Microsoft. HTML Applications, .hta files, have been supported from Windows ME, if I remember correctly, and they are still supported on Windows 7.
You could create an HTML Application (i.e. an HTA file), and by so doing, creating a GUI using only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. When the user double-clicks the HTA file, it will open like a program, but the GUI is entirely based on HTML; in fact, the entire Window is an Internet Explorer window in disguise.
And now comes the important part: you could create non-GUI Delphi applications (i.e., Delphi applications that are not console applications, but that have no forms either), and start them via hyperlinks (or JavaScript) from within your HTA GUI. (Well, it is probably better to create one such Delphi application, and use command-line arguments (ParamStrs) to communicate the desired action.)
Just an idea...
HTML Option 2
Alternatively, you could create a normal Delphi GUI application, but fill the entire main form with a TWebBrowser (a IE control), using Align := alClient. Then you could either load static HTML pages (stored in the Program Files folder or on the Internet), or you could use Delphi to dynamically create HTML pages to show. I think it is possible to intercept links from the control, so that you could respond to links using Delphi code.
What about OpenGL?
If you want to "break away" from the normal Windows look and feel, then I would recommend you to create your GUI using OpenGL. It is very easy to make a Delphi application with OpenGL (as long as you are familiar with OpenGL) - just add "OpenGL" to your uses list.
First this: I completely agree with Deltics' answer.
Having said that, if you master HTML and CSS (and JavaScript and AJAX etc etc) and you are looking for a way to use the power and speed of the Delphi compiler to run the dynamics of a website, this may be of interest.
I've created a project that uses the Delphi compiler to build a library that runs a website. The source-files combines HTML and Delphi, much like other web-scripting tools out there, but gets processed on a page-refresh, and compiled automatically. It uses a 'library handler' that plugs in the website library into pretty much anything you like: IIS, Apache, a stand-alone HTTP server (for hosting), or directly into InternetExplorer or FireFox (which is great for developing).
http://xxm.sourceforge.net/
New versions of Qt contain ability to use html/js for interfaces. I don't know if there is Qt library bindings for Delphi, but Qt is exactly what you want.
for Rich GUI and animation, have you looked at KSDev DXScen and VGScene ?
If you want to keep your delphi/Pascal Object 'background' and have a Web like RIA you also have a look to Morfik : link text
I'd like to pick up a new tech for my toolbox - something for rapid prototyping of web apps. Brief requirements:
public access (not hosted on my machine) - like Google's appengine, etc
no tricky configuration necessary to build a simple web app host
DB access (small storage provided) including some kind of SQLish query language
easy front end HTML templating
ability to access as a JSON service
C# or Java,PHP or Python - or a fun new language to learn is OK
free!
An example app, very simple: render an AJAXy editable (add/delete/edit/drag) list of rich-data list items via some template language, so I can quickly mock up a UI for a client. ie. I can do most of the work client-side, but need convenient back end to handle the permanent storage. (In fact I suppose it doesn't even need HTML templating if I can directly access a DB via AJAX calls.)
I realize this is a bit vague but am wondering if anyone has recommendations. A Rails host might be best for this (but probably not free) or maybe App Engine, or some other choice I'm not aware of? I've been doing everything with heavyweight servers (ASP.NET etc) for so long that I'm just not up on the latest...
Thanks - I'll follow up on comments if this isn't clear enough :)
C# or Java,PHP or Python - or a fun new language to learn is OK
How 'bout Javascript? This place hosts server-side Javascript ticking most of your other boxes. So you can use the same language for client- and server-side stuff (which I find very handy). [Caveat: I only played with their service; seemed cool though. I use Javascript on the server-side on IIS and on Tomcat (via Rhino).]
For something bleeding edge - A new version of spring roo was released recently. With it you can create a great web app in 10 minutes. Supports GAE and GWT...
http://www.springsource.org/roo
xataface is a quick way to make a front end for a MySQL database.
It makes it easy to start an app quickly with dynamically created views and then you can change it to something very customized to your needs.
It simply needs a server service with MySQL and PHP.