Integrating existing VFP database to new website

[StewartUK]

We are talking about building a new website and one thing we have discussed is allowing our supporters to view/change the data we have on them.

I've heard that it is very difficult to integrate a new website to an existing databse (the comment was I think not specifically related to VFP databases).

It is quite possible that the new website won't be using VFP related tools such as West-Wind's.

Can anyone comment on this?

Thanks,

Stewart

 

[Mike Gagnon]

I've heard that it is very difficult to integrate a new website to an existing databse (the comment was I think not specifically related to VFP databases).

I cannot support that statement. We (the company I work for), designed a "design your own website in minutes" type of setup. We use FoxWeb as the engine. All the customer has to do is in the URL (which we provide) add the name of the company he wants to use and as soon as he hits "enter" in the internet explorer, the company folder is created, the usertable is created and he can modify the structure of the user table right from his website, within second. So no, it is not difficult to do.


Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.
ReFox XI (www.mcrgsoftware.com)

 

[falconsight]

But how you did it? I'm really newbie (as in 0 knowledge), and I'd like to know how to share my database in the Web. The way you depict it, is something that I'd like to do, but have not the knowledge. Any step by step tutorial you can point me?
Thanks in advance...!

 

[Mike Gagnon]

It depends what you want to do. For example we have an application (a web application) that shows us certain pieces of information of vehicles on the road (like GPS positioning etc...). On the web side of it, you see a list of vehicles to select from, once you click on a link, it send a request to our server (to FoxWeb in this case), and Foxweb executes a foxpro program that goes an retrieves the "last known position" for that vehicle with an SQL statement, and builds a webpage based in that information and returns the webpage to the calling application (Web browser) to display a "google map" of this position. The data on the server are DBF tables that a filled in by the vehicles themselves that broadcast their prosition every 5 seconds.
But there are other ways of using the technique, were for example you have a webpage were you want to see an order from a client, and the same applies as above, send a string to FoxWeb, Foxweb retreives the order and builds a webpage, and sends it back to the calling app.
We use Foxweb (

http://www.foxweb.com/)

but there are others available on the market.

http://www.codeplex.com/activevfp

http://www.west-wind.com/webconnection/

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.
ReFox XI (www.mcrgsoftware.com)

 

[Olaf Doschke]

to tell just the technical part:

What you need to publish a vfp database on the web is a windows server, on which you can run vfp code, minimum requirement would be to have a windows os based web server with vfp's oledb provider installed. Then you can upload your dbc and dbf files and any scripting language the webserver supports and that itself supports COM can use ADODB.Connection, ADODB.Command and ADODB.Recordset objects and query the vfp data.

If you can even deplay and register vfp COM servers on that web server you can also do programming in vfp to retrieve data. Or you install one of the alternatives mike showed you. Additional to that there is AFP (

http://www.afpages.de/site.afp?cat=home&lang=en)

With these extensions you can run vfp on the webserver. And they support things specific to web applications like session handling.

There's one different alternative, that is you allow users to establish a VPN connection to the server with the vfp database, which ads a virtual LAN connection from a the user's computer to the server and then you can even use a desktop app via internet. But that will make it a slow connection and in most cases it's better to either set up a web application which does not only serve the pure data, but web pages generated on requests, or to use the third altarnative:

terminal server services. That is you allow the user a remote desktop connection or similar, and let them run the vfp application on the server. It's like the user is using the server, only his keyboard, mouse and monitor are not there but connected through internet. The terminal server sevice receives mouse and keyboard input from the ip connection rather than from the real device, and instead of serving web pages it serves the desktop graphics to the users.

you'd use the second or third alternative with VPN or Terminal services only, if there is a smaller number of known and trusted users. As those kind of connections to the web server are more vulnerable for hacks and security issues, than a web server and a web application.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[EzLogic]

I use FoxWeb as well.
We run a whole intranet system, that has e-commerce with our B2B partners, forums, ordering, accounting integration, etc..

a Big side of it is .NET, and the other side is FoxPro. Pure foxpro code with FoxWeb server.

Ali Koumaiha
Wireless Toyz
Farmington Hills, Michigan