Is Java the correct language for this?

[Nutthick]

I want to write a web based system, that allows users to log in (authenticated through username and password) and then to interact with a Windows style GUI. Data entered online would be either stored in a file or in a database (mySQL?) and would be available to print. The information stored would be specific for each day, with past days able to be called up. Non-Administrator users could view parts of the data, but could not alter it. My idea was that by using Java the system could be accessible to both Windoze and Mac users.

Is Java the correct language to do this? I would like to run the system on Linux if possible.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[bclt]

Java is the language for many platforms (Windows Linux...). I believe that C could also work fine.


-bclt

 

[Diancecht]

What I don't fully understand is how these three things come together: web based, Windows style GUI and cross-platform.

At first sight, you're looking for a web application with DB interaction so jsp, asp, php would do the trick, but not sure if I'm rigth.

Cheers,

Dian

 

[prosper]

you should know which server(windows or mac) are using for running web server or application server.

 

[Nutthick]

I'll try and make things a bit clearer.

The idea is that I will have a system that can be accessed by Windows or Mac, from anywhere in the world. The user goes to a website which then runs the java software to do the following:

1. Allows the user to securely access their part of a mySQL database (or maybe just a file) on the server itself. The interaction with the database would be quite complicated, hence the use of a GUI to simplify things a bit.

2. Allows the user to print to their local printer, based on their information from the server.

3. Allows the java to control the serial port on the server.

4. Allows the Java to send out emails from the server.

That's the basic functionality and I thought Java was the way to do it. Does anyone know if I'm right?

Thanks

 

[sedj]

You could do all of those things using Java or C/C++ - up to you.

--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software

http://www.primrose.org.uk

 

[bclt]

Good sedj, we believe the same !

 

[Nutthick]

I want to run the server side on linux, but if life gets too difficult, the I want to dump it onto a Windows box. Does that restrict me to Java?

Also does anyone have an example of an online GUI written in C/C++?

Thanks

 

[bclt]

Java is ok for GUI also running on linux (import packages awt.... etc)

C++ is also ok for what you want to do.


Check this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcsample/html/_vc_samples_home.asp

 

[sedj]

What do you mean by an "online GUI" ? Do you mean a web page or an actual application running client side (as an applet (Java) or ActiveX control (WinAPI/C++) ?

--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software

http://www.primrose.org.uk

 

[Nutthick]

I've seen pages running a GUI in Java code, within Internet Explorer, when you go to a specific address. That's what I want to achieve. Basically I don't want to have to write a server application, a windows application and a mac application. The user just interact with data on the server using the java GUI.

 

[sedj]

So you mean an applet then ?

--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software

http://www.primrose.org.uk

 

[bclt]

Aaa..

You then will create the java application (.java) and compile it (.class file!).

example
PASTE THIS SCRIPT INTO YOUR BODY TAG

<applet code="???.class" height=300 width=400>
<param name="game" value="3">
</applet>

 

[bclt]

You'll find many examples in:

http://javafile.com/

 

[Nutthick]

I don't know, I'm new to this type of software. The Java coffee cup appears when I look at the page I want to copy. Can an applet perform all the functionality I mentioned previously?

 

[bclt]

Yep

 

[sedj]

I still think you'd be better of writing a web site for this kind of thing - using an Applet for it is a bit heavy handed, but I guess its your choice !

--------------------------------------------------
Free Database Connection Pooling Software

http://www.primrose.org.uk

 

[Diancecht]

I agree sedj, I don't see why you should need an applet. An applet fits when you want to run some process at client side, but what I see here is that the client will just be shown the GUI.

I think this is calling for a web based application. The browser will give you the cross-platform issue at client side.

On the server side you can either use jsp, asp, php or anyone else. And i think any of them has a server implementation for Linux and Windows.

Cheers,

Dian

 

[Sheco]

Nutthick,

What programming languages do you already know?

The best answer for one person might not be the best for another because you can probably do a better job with a more familiar programming tool.

 

[Nutthick]

My main background is VB6 that I've been working in for about 6 years. I've done alot of embedded work, mainly in assembler, but the last year have been moving over to embedded C. I haven't bothered moving to vb.NET as the jump seemed a long one, and I thought it would be more productive to learn visual c++.net instead. However, this project came up before I could really start on the C stuff and after reading around it seemed that Java was the way to do it. We want to migrate to Linux servers in the future, so I thought by using Java now, I would be saving myself time in the future.