HOW TO ENABLE MY APPLICATION TO ACCESS AT THE NET

[remsor]

VFP experts,

I have a existing application which is running smoothly but one time my client ask me on how he can access the application thru internet so that he can monitor his system in anywhere. I'm new with this technology, Pleasse help me..
any ideas is highly appreciated.
(Sysstem developed in VFP6 but as of now i'm converting my application to VFP8)


thanks.

 

[Keepontrying]

I don't know of any program that can convert your application just as is to run the net.

I used west wind connection.

http://www.west-wind.com

Here you will find the information you will need.

 

[jimoo]

To add to Keepontrying's reply.

Web connect can take a foxpro form and rendor it as a webpage. There are some limitation, such as grids, etc., but overall it works well.

However, taking an existing app and converting it to a web app is not that straightforward. It is something that needs to be part of the original design.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Remsor,

There are several approaches you can take, none of them trivial.

Basically, you will have to rewrite your application (or the relevant parts of it) in the form of a COM server. You can then write code to access the COM server from a web site. That code could be in a scripting language like ASP, which would instantiate the server, call its methods and display the results. Or, you could use a tool like FoxISAPI, which basically lets you call a VFP COM method from the Submit button or a hyperlink in a HTML form.

The above is a very quick overview of what's involved. The West Wind site which Keepontrying suggested is a good place to learn more. Another good resource is Rick Strahls' book on web development in VFP; you can find more details of this book at my own site, at:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk/MLCBooks.htm

You might also consider if there is any alternative to writing a full-blown web-based app. If your boss only want to see certain bits of information, it might be adequate to generate static HTML pages from your database and to periodically upload these to the server.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[DanaAnderson]

If you are running on NT 4, maybe Windows Terminal Server can help. It allows you to run an application remotely through a browser. You'd need to set up a secure connection, a VPN is best. They did this on my last job, and people on the west coast used the application that sat on our server on the east coast.

Dana

 

[darrellblackhawk]

DanaAnderson's solution maybe the best in the shortrun.

One problem you may run into is if your client is using
dynamic IP's. Even then you can work around that.

As far a using a VPN to connect to the app remotely, I'd leave a system running with it logged on, but with the screen saver running to lock out local users from messing with it when the manager is offsite.

Of course as Dana stated, this will require Windows NT or Windows 2k plus.

If it's just a matter of monitoring the data, you'll need to do some non-trivial code writing, so as stated, using a VPN may be the best short term solution.

Darrell