I agree on the web-front. If you have many users in Intranet infrastructure, you save a lot of money not needing to maintain every desktop installation, and not only this, viruses are more controlled too, because in the worst case you just reinstall a minimal working configuration (Windows-AV-browser-Office) and that's it.
The only case when may be better a desktop app, in my opinion, is when you need some processing that can't be done on the server, or for CAD or some utils.
I love desktop apps, but in latest years (ok, may be more) I found myself trying to use web apps for anything that I need to use when connected to Internet, and even without Internet, an Intranet is the minimal that any office have.
In the last 10 years many web apps are almost equal than the equivalent desktop ones, at window level, UI and power.
But, again, I see this kind of decision more dependent on the amount of final users, the kind of app and what the need is about scaling, connectivity, mobility, etc.
2017-02-03 15:56 GMT+01:00 Stephen Russell srussell705@gmail.com:
Go web based UI and from there you can pick any backend for data you want.
Generating UI for desktop is so limiting for your users last year, this year and the future. Just saying. I am looking at having all my UI have to work across iPad and cell phones. Because it is information that we are presenting. It isn't required to be at a user's desk to suddenly have value.
On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 8:54 AM, Paul H. Tarver paul@tpcqpc.com wrote:
Ok, I've lurked here long enough. I've been subscribed to this list for several months and I have thoroughly enjoyed the questions and answers
that
have come through during that time. I'm even a little star-struck when I see the names of Foxpro experts that I have depended upon for years to help educate me to be a better Foxpro programmer. Thank you all for all you do in this list group. Now it is time for me to ask what is probably going to sound like a dumb question coming from someone who has been using Foxpro since Foxlan but I figure I have nothing to lose here and everything to gain.
For the past few years I have been honing my skills as a developer of
data
interfaces and until recently, the few full-fledged data entry projects I've build relied upon native Foxpro dbf files. However, my interface work has been depending more and more upon using SQL pass-through language to
issue
queries against various SQL backend systems and I have been pretty successful at retrieving data from various systems and then re-formatting that data for other uses.
For a while now, I've been contemplating building a data-entry and maintenance system from the ground up that depends completely upon using
a
SQL database (Firebird, MySQL, MS SQL, Postgres or something similar). My problem is that I have all these data handling classes built into a
couple
of simple toolbars that I can drop on form and provide the standard Add, Delete, Undo, Save and Exit functionality as well as a vcr toolbar to
skip
between records. These tools include all of the code necessary to detect changes enable various buttons based on conditions, etc. stuff we are all familiar with.
Now I'm trying to wrap my head around the whole concept of changing the
way
I depend upon Foxpro to handle much of the behind the scenes table
activity
and create a new user interface that conforms to the how SQL works while maintaining as much of the familiar functionality I'm so happy with in Foxpro.
Does anyone have any recommendations for where I should go to learn more about the best practices for developing user interfaces that work efficiently with SQL backends, and what do I need to know about how to collect data and insert it into the sql tables, detect user changes to
flag
for saving data. In some software they seemed to have ditched the Add, Delete, Undo, Save, Exit concept to just save everytime there is
keystroke.
And in other systems, they keep parts of that old style of user interaction. Are there any libraries that can be purchased or downloaded to handle
some
of the behind the scenes data manipulation for SQL that I can use to
learn
how this stuff should work.
For something that seems to be easy, I'm having a hard time letting go of my 20+ years of doing things the Foxpro way to make the transition.
Any thoughts?
Paul H. Tarver Tarver Program Consultants, Inc.
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