Tempted by a Hentzenwerke news: 36 Hour Sale (no I'm not on commission) Any recommended reads? 2

[KarenLloyd]

Hello again everyone...

It's not really a technical question today as such. I'm looking to learn some new things... So please can you point me to some "recommended reads"? I am thinking about building a portable application that could run on a tablet [but that wouldn't be Windows] or from the Web. (I don't mind which - nice and easy would be best...) It only needs to be small - as it is meant to let the user fill in a form, tick some boxes and add some notes, and then it should save these details to a file that can be downloaded and translated back into the database...

Huh - "It only needs to be small" - who am I kidding? Ever the optimist...

How do I find out about crossing platforms or web building in VFP? Is it achievable - or where should I start looking?
Oh - and shall I dip into the 36 hour sale or not? ;D

Thank you

Karen

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Karen,

I can't try recommend any specific sources of information for you. No doubt other folk here will have some good ideas for you.

But a couple of quick thoughts about the Hentzenwerke 36-hour sale:

- Many of the books in offer are very short: only 20 - 30 pages. That doesn't mean the information in them won't be useful. But, given they're not much longer than a couple of long magazine articles, you might have more chance of finding what you want on various web sites. If you see a particular Hentzenwerke title that appeals to you, by all means go for it. But don't make a purchase merely because of the low prices.

- The so-called e-books aren't "real" e-books, but are PDFs. That won't be a problem if you plan to read them on a computer screen, but reading them on an e-book reader such as a Kindle or Nook won't be a satisfactory experience.

I know this doesn't answer your main questions, but I hope you'll find it useful.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy

 

[billch]

Hi Karen,

Take a look at ActiveVFP.
It's not trivial to set up and get started, but it allows you to create web-based apps using VFP code as the scripting language and VFP DBF's for your data.
The front end is typically HTML. Some knowledge of CSS and JavaScript can be useful.

Check it out:
[link activevfp.codeplex.com]activevfp.codeplex.com[/url]

BTW, it's free!


Bill Chambers
Chambers & Associates

http://www.ChambersData.com

 

[KarenLloyd]

Hi Mike

I'm always grateful for your input. Thank you.

Hi Bill

ActiveVFP sounds interesting - I do have some web dev experience, but this could need to be a collaboration with someone who is much better at it. I'll certainly be taking a look.

Thanks very much

Karen

 

[craigber]

Cross platform for VFP means web. There really isn't another choice.

But having said that, why would you learn that? It's life span is limited. There are very few companies that will host that for you and really, when it comes to web, it isn't the backend, but the front end that's important. If you want to learn web development learn HTML, CSS, javascript, and JQuery. Those skill can be applied universally, no matter what the backend or browser.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual C# MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Well, there is a steep learning curve to javascript an all the frameworks you can or should or could use. JQuery may be the bottom line and all other javascript somehow are related to it, enhanced it or use it or at least took ideas of it.

I suggest you take a look at AngularJS. This video shows a feature that reminds me of VFP controlsource, really easy looking data binding: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFTFsKmkQnQ[/url]

John Lindquist, the developer of AngularJS, compares it against a similar jQuery solution.

Of course all this is just a tidbit of all you need to develop a web application with HTML5, CSS, and Javascript plus some Javascript Framework(s) and Libraries.

But in the end you can couple all this with anything on the server side retruning HTML or XML or JSON, so you can indeed strt with ActiveVFP or AFP or FoxWeb or any of the falvours of VFP on the web and later attach to it via Javascript.

Craig is still right, the danger with VFP based web technology is, you depend on the VFP runtime to continue working, you also limit yourself to Windows web servers. The good thing about that is you can get more and more windows hosting and the price range may be a bit higher, but depending on the number of users per month/day/hour you expect it can get neglectible cheap, too.

As you say oyu mainly need one form, that could be done by a bit of HTML alone with a form action=mailto and batch processing incoming mails. I would rather use PHP and store the incoming data directly to a mysql database.

Make this a classic non dynamic html page and no AJAX technology etc., just a html form with action=mailto:yourmailadress and this will also work without anything more than that static HTML, plus a bit of CSS and images to make it look pretty.

<html><body>
<form method="POST" action="mailto:...your mail address here...">
<input type="text" name="Fullname" value="enter your name">
</form>
</body></html>

This is as simple as it could get to retrieve some infos via a web form. The only drawback this has is that users have to allow the browser to send a mail. Trying this here now, my outlook opens with a prepared mail and I have to send it - so I have to submit the form (by ENTER) and then send the mail that's shown to me in it's full uglyness. But it would get the job done with as low effort as I can think of.

Bye, Olaf.