How to run forms remotely

[skaskas]

Let's say I am running an application from my network PC that issues bills. After completing the bills form I must get approval to mail it automatically. The approval is done by a supervisor on another computer. I am trying to get approval remotely i.e. let's say when I press approve button, I want to display a form at the other computer, when the supervisor approves it, I will be able to mail the bills, else approval rejected and nothing happens.

Is there a way to do this? Or can any one point me in the right direction?

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Skaskas,

One possibility would be something like this:

One the PC where the bills form is created, on saving the form, you write the relevant data to a new record in a table.

On the supervisor's PC, the application has a timer that fires, say, once per minute. The timer checks to see if there are any new records in the table. If there are, it displays the form for approval.

After the supervisor has approved the form, this fact is recorded against the relevant record in the table. This will prevent the same record being presented for approval again the next time round.

You could either add the above processing to your existing application (assuming it is always running on the supervisor's machine), or you could build it into a separate executable that you load at startup, and would always be running behind the scenes.

Do you think that would work for you?

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[Steve Bowman]

When i first read the post, before I read Mike's reply his solution was the first thing that poped in my head. I have doen this sort of application in the past and it works just fine. I created the Supervisor Application as a seperate standalone only to keep it as lightweight as possiable.

In one instance I added to the main application a semaphor file.
When i needed the attention of the supervisor I would write my record data then write a file out to a network drive ie. Assistance[uniquenumber].sem this was just a file with a few 000's in it.

on the Supervisor application I would in my timer first look for the semaphor files and only process through the tables if i found a file. then when done I would delete the file. I did this because without the flag file the Supervisor would complain that every minute his PC would lag for a few seconds while looking to see if anything needed done. With the semaphor file logic in place the Supervisor Application only processed records when needed.

Maybe he had a slow PC or Network and do not remember exactly the situation. The semaphor file may not be nessisary in your case. I am only throwing it in as an option if needed.

Steve Bowman
Independent Technology, Inc.
CA, USA

 

[SnyAc]

I also use winsock and allow various modules of my applications to communicate with each other.... i.e. to fire a form on another computer ....

Andy Snyder
SnyAc Software Services

http://www.snysoft.com