A customer of mine asked me a better and faster solution to update it's real estate web site as he and his employees don't want to connect to the web site and update one by one the ads as they don't want to loose time waiting the normal latency of the internet.
I firstly solved the issue by building a PHP script that imported an Excel file into the web site's MySQL database and it worked greatly. But the problem were pictures that have still to be uploaded separately. I then wrote a PHP script that uploaded the pictures using ajax and drag&drop so the user could select multiple pictures and upload them at once. And this worked too, but the customer is still not completely satisfied as he says this solution is quite 'patched'.
I then thought about a desktop application - a kind of local database (could be SQLite) - that the user keeps updated locally and only at the end of the day the app connects to the remote server and updates the db and uploads the pictures.
My question is: what EASY desktop high level programming language I could use to do the job? Do you know any RAD (visual IDE) programming language able to connect to a remote mySQL server and upload data via a simple custom GUI?
I tried RealBasic and PureBasic but I did not work it out. I thought about building the app in PHP and then convert it to EXE but I did not tried yet.
Please don't suggest me Java, C or Delphy as I'm looking for something very easy.
Thank you
Have you considered a client side javascript/html app that syncs with the server, since you're already familiar with the platform? If one browser better supports what you want to do (Firefox has some extension perhaps vs Chrome, or whatever), than mandate that to run this app (rather than worrying about being portable across browsers).
All of the browsers can have client side storage now, and you can just do things locally, and finally push them to the server "all at once".
If your client is using a Windows platform, you could use IronPython (.NET), VB.NET, or C#. These all allow you to create windows/forms visually in Visual Studio. If you're not already familiar with the .NET platform I'm not sure how 'easy' this will be, but I think that's going to be true for most other platforms as well.
That being said, it sounds like your existing solution is probably the best idea - perhaps if you can make your solution feel less like a "patch" they will be satisfied.
No reason you can't use Purebasic if that's what you're comfortable with. There are HTTP file upload examples on the PB forums.
I've used Purebasic for years but I'd recommend spending the time to get to know C#/.NET - it's a world of difference and once you learn it stuff like this is pretty easy.
Related
Is it possible to build a realtime app using AngularJs with a mysql database?
I've been reading thousands of tutorials, but they are all focused on express, nodejs, etc.. didn't found any documentation on wheter it's possible or not. I tried to take a look at the socket.io docs, but still didn't found anything relevant to this question.
I didn't tried anything yet because of this. I use a webApp based on AngularJs on a apache server (local).
Where should i start to be able to build a real time app using these tools i have?
Do i really need to use a node/express server?
What are the main consideration i need to do before taking this step?
Is there any documentation i should read?
I need to do this real time because it involves product orders, call center, ticket system, etc.. So everytime there is a new ticket is opened/changed, new order arrives, etc.. I need to make the user aware of this, without the need to refresh the page.
Or if someone could give me a further explanation of this concept and how to get started, it will be great.
You can run angular on top of any backend, although most examples push towards REST. If you want your app to feel like a real time application, using WebSockets is a likely improvement.
WebSockets play nice with Angular, look at https://github.com/wilk/ng-websocket for example. A back-end in Node will work, but many other backend techs will do equally well.
Here is a decent tutorial using MySQL, NodeJS, and Angular: https://codeforgeek.com/2015/03/real-time-app-socket-io/
I recommend that you keep using a webserver like Apache (my personal preference is Nginx). You can proxy API and socket requests to Node, and serve static resources for the app from a folder.
Check out https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy_wstunnel.html if you stay with Apache. Check out http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/websocket.html is you go for nginx.
Without a webserver, you'll have to either:
serve your static resources with Node (polluting your server project with client code), or
work with different ports, risking the app becomes unusable in client environments, or
work with different domains, giving you a CORS head-ache.
Although I don't have much experience with Node, MySQL with Node.js should help you out a bit.
You'll want to move away from Apache if you want to do websocket stuff with Socket.io
Yes, it is possible to create a software with AngularJS in the front end and any other server side language that speaks to MySQL. Few months back I worked on a software with Java Spring Framework in the backend with MySQL database and AngularJS with bootstrap in the front end. You could start by following the MVC pattern, where your views can be served as AngularJS and your Controller can be in any server side code, with MySQL database.
I am working on an app in visual c++ which requires data to be accessed from a database which can be edited so that every time there is a modification to the data I do not have to resend the app as it will automatically update, it is also required that this is a desktop app.
I am currently using MySql however for this to run constantly I will be needing a server which for a single simple app wont really be worth purchasing, so I started thinking of alternative methods and thought to myself there must be some method of reading directly from a website or online database, am I correct in thinking this? If so could someone please explain how I would achieve this?
Also, I have purchased phpmyadmin in the past so if there is any way I could connect my visual c++ app to a database from this then that would be great.
EDIT: Note, this app relies almost entirely on the database as it is just 3 combo box's and one text field all of that values for which come from the database.
The following response is assuming that by online you mean on the web.
You cannot exactly 'connect' to an online database with C++ (or anything outside of that server hosting the database).
What I would do is create some PHP API's that you can POST to with libcurl via C++. You can both send and receive data this way.
I have a client who wants a control panel for the app I am developing them. The control panel is a Mac OSX application that allows the user to submit files (excel docs and such) to my MySQL database. Those files are then checked by the iOS app I have created for them.
I have no idea how to do this. I have the MySQL database all set up, and I have looked everywhere for a solution. Any help is appreciated.
I wouldn't try to connect to your MySQL database directly from your cell phone. It's a bad design for several reasons. Instead build a API on the same server as the MySQL database. It doesn't matter if you do it in java, php, c# or anything else. You might even find some product or open source project that can do this automatically. I've listed some benefits of doing it this way
It makes testing easier. You can write a test framework against your API that doesn't rely on or is using a phone.
It makes development faster. You don't need to emulate or use a phone to develop and test your table design and queries.
It gives you compatibility. When you need to change your database (and you do) you can create new APIs that the new version of the app uses while and old version still out there can continue to use the old API (that you might have to modify to still provide the same functionallity)
It gives you flexibility. If your user base grows and you might need to have replication for reads or sharded databases you build that into the API instead of into the app which is just a better way to do it.
One option would be to use PHP to handle all the database interaction.
Host the scripts on the server and just have the apps call them and get the scripts to return some sort of parseable response (I'd go for JSON).
I have never found a suitable Object-C based connector for MySQL. At this point I would suggest using a C/C++ connector. There's lots of examples of how to configure the connector for both C and C++. The hard part will be all of the data passed from the MySQL code and the Object-C code will that it will have to be in C types.
EDIT: An Example
I'm working on an eCommerce website for a small merchant. This merchant uses Opera (which is based on Visual FoxPro) to manage his in-store inventory, and would like the online store inventory to reflect the in-store inventory.
I'm guessing that my first step is to set up a way to regularly transfer the information from the VFP database to a MySQL database on the website's server. Is there an established process for this? Am I even approaching this problem from the right angle? I've heard a lot about ODBC, but am unsure as to how to implement it or if it's what I'm looking for in this situation.
If it wasn't obvious by this point, I'm in over my head here, and would appreciate any and all advice you may have, including links to articles or tutorials that can help improve my general understanding of all the moving parts here.
Thanks much.
Co-worker developed synchronization process between VFP and MSSQL2008. WCF service which took input directly from VFP.
On other project - as far as i remember, when we tried ODBC .NET data adapter, it had problems with encodings and foreign languages. That's why we used COM+, serialization for communication with .NET.
But it seems to me you are using PHP (eCommerce=>Drupal=>PHP) so you are in completely different situation.
In your case, i would start with checking out if Opera (i guess it's this Opera) provides built-in export and eCommerce provides built-in import. Mostly because it might be tedious work to sync data manually from 2 apps coded by someone else. Then i would research if i/o can be joined and automated (something like scheduled task on win environment). Unfortunately, can't help much more because i'm unfamiliar with those tools, products and technologies.
Anyway - it seems to me like quite hard and dirty task and i wish you good luck. :)
Depend on what is that you are using to implement the website.. in general it is pretty easy with ODBC (In Java , I did it using the jdbc-odbc bridge)
I have been asked by a friend to help him assess a number of quotes for porting a desktop application based on MS access and VBA to a web based app. The application seems to have a relatively large amount of business logic coded into the VBA.
My question is very specific - are there any good tools or resources out there which could assist the porting from access, rather than doing a complete re-write?
The end technology used for the web app does not matter hugely, but would ideally be as mainstream as possible.
You may explore the possibilities offered by Sharepoint. It may help you get the data accessible online but how well will that work depends also on how much VBA code was used in the Access application.
There are some tools around that pretend they can convert MS Access to PHP/ASP websites like DB Forms, but I haven't tried them and they usually only convert the visible part of the app and not the queries and VBA.
They can be helpful to get started though.
Random thoughts
The VBA tends to be the biggest issue.
Moving to ASP.Net will take time and for that you are faced with difficult choices:
transfer all code to the ASP.NET to just get it working
rethink the structure and do a proper ASP.Net implementation from scratch.
I'd prefer the first one: just try has hard as possible to get results fast.
Use SSMA to move the data to SQL Server (unless you want to keep Access as the backend).
Make the forms look the same as on your existing application (or at least have the same function), port the VBA to VB.Net (or C# if you feel like it) form by form, module by module and test that they work as you go along.
Don't try to refactor or make things better at this stage, the point is to 'slap' the old code on the new 'system' and make it bark as it used to, not better, not worse.
Only then can you start refactoring and improving using the new tools at your disposal.
I'm saying all this assuming that there was nothing terribly wrong with the old app and that it just needed to be ported for online consumption.
If the old app was defective and wasn't fulfilling its role, then more emphasis should be placed on re-thinking which parts should be translated and which one should be reworked.
At any rate, you need to have a detailed action plan and a review of the current code and functionalities and try to limit as much as possible your expectations for the first version of the new system: avoid letting everyone input their wishes or your project will become horrendously difficult.
Concentrate on the minimum needed to achieve a certain level of functionality that will satisfy your users, then build on that.
There may be some tools to some of the basic stuff, like to upsize to a different database or maybe the look and text boxes of the forms, but converting what sounds like a lot of VBA code, not so sure.
Is this an intranet/local network type of web app or are you putting it out on the internet? Security will become a major difference between this and your Access app.
Make sure they understand Access/VBA so you can maintain the business logic that has been over the life of the Access app.
Convince your friend to stop/slow any development on the Access app to prevent the company from aiming at a moving target. This may not be realistic, but really needs to be considered.
Is there a reason why hosting the app on Windows Terminal Server would not suffice? This means zero changes to the app, no reprogramming cost and no danger of losing crucial business logic. If you use the Citrix extensions, you can run it in a web browser (though I guess that only works with IE -- I've never used them). But the RDP client comes in versions for Mac and Linux as well as Windows, so you can basically support anybody as long as they install the RDP client for their OS.
Yes, it's more installation on the client end, but it's a helluva lot cheaper and easier on the development and avoids the problem of losing important things coded into the Access app.
Of course, supporting large user populations on WTS/Citrix can get expensive and if the Access app is in need of re-engineering, anyway, it can change the balance. But it's something that you should consider. It's really easy to set up WTS, in fact, and provisioning a server for it basically a matter of adding RAM and Internet bandwidth (though RDP is really efficient to begin with).
One key mistake many people make when trying to run an Access app on WTS:
YOU MUST SPLIT THE DATABASE (front with forms/reports/etc., back end with data tables only), and each user must have their own copy of the front end (stored in user profile on the WTS, or in a folder on your WTS server's data partition with appropriate permissions assigned to the user groups authorized to use the app). Tony Toews's front-end updater is very useful in this context, and explicitly engineered to work in a Terminal Server environment.