Is it possible to read web based DBF records (a limited number of records) on a local box. Memo fields do not apply such that converting the DBF file to an SQL might be better.
If I can leave the data as a DBF, how do I do it?
If SQL is better both short term and long term, how do I do that? Best conversion program and reading Web based SQL from a local box code suggestions?
TIA George
It depends on what you mean by 'web based'. If the DBF files are on a private network which is distributed across the internet, i.e. a WAN, and are located in a shared location that you can access via a UNC (\myserver\myshare\myfile.dbf) then you *could* use them directly however IMO it will be slow, unreliable and prone to corruption. The DBF locking mechanism is anachronistic as it is, adding the internet to that is just asking for trouble.
In this scenario SQL Server or indeed any full-fat database server like PostGres or MariaDB would be far better.
If instead this access is to happen across the public internet then you need to use a web service, this is the most secure and reliable approach whether the data is in DBFs or SQL Server or whatever else. You do not want to open database server to the public internet. So you would have a service on the same machine as the database server (or the same LAN) which accepts requests for data or instructions to update and sends that to the database server (or acts directly on the DBF). So you are sending (probably) JSON or XML back and forth, with security in place so that you have to supply credentials.
George, Don't even try to run with VFP over either a WAN or wireless as it is far to slow and when it crashes it will probably end up corrupting the VFP tables. As Mike so rightly says step up to Client Server (M$SQL server (Free version) or MySQL (or equivalent). The data transfer requirement is minimal, you will never have to bother about drop outs or bandwidth and it will simply work.
You can access the server via either SQL Pass Through (SPT) or using Cursor Adapters (CA's) very easily and once you get your head around disconnected data sets and 3 tier data layers then it is plain sailing.
The free Microsoft SQL Server Express is more than capable of supporting data volumes for small businesses and is totally free (as is MySQL) and performance is excellent.
Changing to Client Server does require a rethink in terms of how you design your Business Logic in order to separate it from your presentation layer but makes life very simple if you ever come to change the Data Storage Layer from one server to another. The other advantage is that you can design your programs/systems to be easily maintained as opposed to using "standard VFP" where all the layers are contained in one level of program and changing one aspect normally has a knock-on detrimental effect.
Lots of people on the group are well versed in Client Server technology and there are excellent resources out there written by very knowledgeable VFP people.
Ask away on here and you will get virtually limitless advice and help.
Best of luck (not that you will need it!)
One other option you also have of course is to migrate your software onto FoxInCloud which unfortunately I cannot comment on in terms of ease of transfer or suitability but it has had some good press and a section that allows you to see exactly what changes would be required to your existing source code. Contact Thierry Nivelet who frequents here for details.
Dave
-----Original Message----- From: ProFox [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of G Gambill Sent: 13 May 2016 04:25 To: ProFoxTech List profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: DBF Records on a Web Server and EXE on Local Box
Is it possible to read web based DBF records (a limited number of records) on a local box. Memo fields do not apply such that converting the DBF file to an SQL might be better.
If I can leave the data as a DBF, how do I do it?
If SQL is better both short term and long term, how do I do that? Best conversion program and reading Web based SQL from a local box code suggestions?
TIA George
-- Success builds confidence. Failure builds knowledge.
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I agree with this and add:
We have many clients using our VFP9 SP2 software with DBF files on cloud servers with MS server 2003-2012 with very good results and the best performance for more than 4 users of any method we know of (using our software: about 2 million lines of code and over 100 separate DBF files - heavy volume) They access using RDP clients from different OS. It will work with android tablets, but since this is accounting software, we don't think the screen keyboard is the best for this application, but that is subjective, YRMV
On 5/13/2016 6:54 AM, Dave Crozier wrote:
George, Don't even try to run with VFP over either a WAN or wireless as it is far to slow and when it crashes it will probably end up corrupting the VFP tables. As Mike so rightly says step up to Client Server (M$SQL server (Free version) or MySQL (or equivalent). The data transfer requirement is minimal, you will never have to bother about drop outs or bandwidth and it will simply work.
You can access the server via either SQL Pass Through (SPT) or using Cursor Adapters (CA's) very easily and once you get your head around disconnected data sets and 3 tier data layers then it is plain sailing.
The free Microsoft SQL Server Express is more than capable of supporting data volumes for small businesses and is totally free (as is MySQL) and performance is excellent.
Changing to Client Server does require a rethink in terms of how you design your Business Logic in order to separate it from your presentation layer but makes life very simple if you ever come to change the Data Storage Layer from one server to another. The other advantage is that you can design your programs/systems to be easily maintained as opposed to using "standard VFP" where all the layers are contained in one level of program and changing one aspect normally has a knock-on detrimental effect.
Lots of people on the group are well versed in Client Server technology and there are excellent resources out there written by very knowledgeable VFP people.
Ask away on here and you will get virtually limitless advice and help.
Best of luck (not that you will need it!)
One other option you also have of course is to migrate your software onto FoxInCloud which unfortunately I cannot comment on in terms of ease of transfer or suitability but it has had some good press and a section that allows you to see exactly what changes would be required to your existing source code. Contact Thierry Nivelet who frequents here for details.
Dave
-----Original Message----- From: ProFox [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of G Gambill Sent: 13 May 2016 04:25 To: ProFoxTech List profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: DBF Records on a Web Server and EXE on Local Box
Is it possible to read web based DBF records (a limited number of records) on a local box. Memo fields do not apply such that converting the DBF file to an SQL might be better.
If I can leave the data as a DBF, how do I do it?
If SQL is better both short term and long term, how do I do that? Best conversion program and reading Web based SQL from a local box code suggestions?
TIA George
-- Success builds confidence. Failure builds knowledge.
--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 2:16 PM, Ken McGinnis kamcginnis@gmail.com wrote:
We have many clients using our VFP9 SP2 software with DBF files on cloud servers with MS server 2003-2012 with very good results and the best performance for more than 4 users of any method we know of (using our software: about 2 million lines of code and over 100 separate DBF files - heavy volume)
Ken:
Can you expand on this a bit? Are the servers running in the cloud, and the RDP sessions connecting directly to them and DBFs that are *local* to the servers?
yes to all. We put everything in the same folder and subfolders on the server, exactly like running on a local computer.
The RDP client can be on everything I have tried including my android phone (NOTE 3) of course, it is pretty worthless because of the screen size, but a laptop with 11" screen or larger is ok.
On 5/13/2016 12:20 PM, Ted Roche wrote:
On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 2:16 PM, Ken McGinnis kamcginnis@gmail.com wrote:
We have many clients using our VFP9 SP2 software with DBF files on cloud servers with MS server 2003-2012 with very good results and the best performance for more than 4 users of any method we know of (using our software: about 2 million lines of code and over 100 separate DBF files - heavy volume)
Ken:
Can you expand on this a bit? Are the servers running in the cloud, and the RDP sessions connecting directly to them and DBFs that are *local* to the servers?
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