Need to build web service, pronto :)

[herbstgy]

Dear All,

I have a VFP9 win32 app which works quite fine for years now. But now I'm in a situation that I have to let go the thick client and put at least some of the functions into a web page. The trouble is, I never did anything similar earlier.
So I just started to view the VFP samples about the subject and found this foxisapi.dll.
I have an IIS 10.0 that I can use here, I've put the foxisapi.dll into the c:\inetpub\scripts directory as the help directed me, then I tried to run the foxis project.
It has a proper test.htm page, which looks similar like the form in the project.

but when I press one of the buttons on top, I get this message.

I guess I'm missing something fundamental here.
Anyone care to guide me?

 

[mmerlinn]

You might want to translate the error into English as most people can understans English, but few understand Hungarian.

So, what does "Ez a(z) autapp01wprlvmw oldal nem talalhato" mean in English?

 

[GriffMG]

Well, I am sure others will say I'm wrong... but it isn't easy to take a vfp app from the pc to the web.

I have done it, using classic ASP and that works ok, using the VFPOLEDB... but I can't say that starting from
scratch I would do today.

 

[herbstgy]

You might want to translate the error into English as most people can understans English, but few understand Hungarian.

So, what does "Ez a(z) autapp01wprlvmw oldal nem talalhato" mean in English?

it means "Page not found".
I thought the HTTP error 404 gives it away.

 

[Steve Yu]

I think you are in for a long ride.
It took us months to launch a website that can handle VFP data.
We use tools from west-wind.com.

 

[herbstgy]

for now, I just want to get the sample work, to see it works.
everything else comes after.

 

[Steve Yu]

I'll defer to gurus in the forum to offer some insight as I'm not familiar with the sample coding you presented.

 

[GriffMG]

I would look at providing your desktop app via rdp/terminal server

 

[Mike Lewis]

Well, I am sure others will say I'm wrong... but it isn't easy to take a vfp app from the pc to the web.

You are not wrong, Griff. In my experience, it is almost always easier to rewrite the app from scratch using a dedicated server-based language such as PHP.

Herbstgy, you say you are using FoxISAPI. This is very old technology. I'm not sure to what extent it is still supported. In any case, it requires a Microsoft web server such as IIS or PWS. I see you have IIS, but can you be sure that the app will always run on an ISAPI-compliant server?

Finally, you are asking a lot of the forum to expect us to debug your work without actually seeing your code.

Mike

 

[herbstgy]

Dear Mike,

I'm not asking to debug my code. (it's not even my code.) I just asked if anyone tried this sample provided with VFP, and did it work for them. And if it did, how.
I have a notion that if I could get it work, I could write my own code too...

 

[Chris Miller]

The first thing that's already wrong is that the headers HTTP and Content-Type and Expires are within the browser and not sent as headers. I think it's futile to get this going.
That a button click gets you to a 404 not found error already points out someting doesn't work anymore or the setup you did was only halfways correct.

There's a section "Set up the HTML page" in the help topic FoxIs, a Visual FoxPro Internet Server. That suggests an initial URL is not hostname:8443/test.htm but "hostname:NNNN/scripts/foxisapi.dll/foxis.employee.cmd" or "localhost:NNNN/scripts/foxisapi.dll/foxis.employee.cmd" where NNNN normally is 80 or 81 or 8080 or 8181, but you seem to use port 8443. Anyway, you should try out that.

 

[herbstgy]

thanks for the answers, guys, I think I let this idea go...

 

[mmerlinn]

it means "Page not found".
I thought the HTTP error 404 gives it away.

It probably would have, but it is in a tiny font and grayed out. Once you mentioned it, I had to look at the page 3 times before I found the error message.

 

[Chris Miller]

I find it strange going from "pronto" to "I let this idea go..." so fast.

now I'm in a situation that I have to let go the thick client and put at least some of the functions into a web page

One question before I leave you alone with how to deal with the situation: Is your "thick client" aka desktop application storing data into the internet? Is it in any way non local? I.e. using a MySQL or MSSQL backend somewhere onnecting to a central server already?

 

[herbstgy]

I find it strange going from "pronto" to "I let this idea go..." so fast.

One question before I leave you alone with how to deal with the situation: Is your "thick client" aka desktop application storing data into the internet? Is it in any way non local? I.e. using a MySQL or MSSQL backend somewhere onnecting to a central server already?

not at all. it's local network only.

 

[Chris Miller]

Okay, then the easiest thing to get something to run for clients without needing to install your application is offering it on remote desktop, as Griff suggested.

 

[GriffMG]

RDP apps do not come free of development.
Or licencing costs, although there are 'trial' routes that can avoid the licence things, not a rec'

 

[GriffMG]

So you know, each rdp client needs a unique place to store temp files etc.

This isn't a consideration for a normal pc client.

 

[Chris Miller]

Sure, Griff, it's not easy to set up and it's not something a new user can simply start by visiting a URL. But we don't know anything about herbstgy's user base and how feasible it is, but it can be and Azure based hosting enables you to provide applications via RDP.

For example: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/virtual-desktop, as the page says: "Deliver affordable, secure remote desktop and application experiences to employees wherever they are." - it's mainly something you offer to employees for working at home, but you could also provide that to a (small) group of your business partners.

It is not requiring a rewrite such as making an application work in the FoxIs way that's intended to be an EXE you can both run standalone as desktop EXE and when executed via ISAPI within IIS returning HTML for itself instead of running as a Foxpro form. Not talking about the not well aged HTML used for that.

 

[herbstgy]

well, the user base would be the department's 1st level phone helpdesk mostly consisting part time student workers, so I wouldn't trust anything more complicated than a web page to them...
If I would give the desktop app to them in any way, I would have to make serious rewrites so they can only reach the functions intended for them, or develop a separate application, that's why I thought I could create a web app for them. But you guys are right about Foxisapi is too outdated to do that.