Henry, Sorry to be slow in replying. The suggestion by Ric Sherlock to investigate Oleg's work was a very good one. I had my stuff in place before Oleg produced his better engineered (and distributed) package of stuff. I looked at it a bit, saw some nice things, but have continued to use my own stuff (just as I continue to not use packages as as "files" or "strings" - I think you know how that goes...
I have incorporated some (simple) javascript and dynamic HTML into my pages - not trying to do fancy things, but it is easy glue stuff together. The exchange between server and client is indeed HTML. The tricks come from extra work on either side, javascript in the client (stuff received from the server either as script files or dynamically created) or j acting like php etc. on the server side. Debugging is an issue, but others have pointed out that it is easy to set up a server on a local machine to get a realistic environment. I use Apache, and have no idea how the same things might be done in a Windows IIS or other environments - so there is some planning to do. What I have are some very simple scripts for getting arguments/variables from POST or GET HTML forms, table formatting tools (another contemporary discussion) and so forth. These all work on my Linux servers - they also work on Apache running in Mac OS - again, I have 0 experience with Windows.... If you are interested, I can either publish my script stuff in the forum (again) or send you a file in a private note. - joey At 17:57 -0400 2010/03/27, Henry Rich wrote: >So, Joey, is the idea that my J script sits on the server and spits out >HTML to the user's browser? > >Then the user's form input would get routed through CGI somehow and >presented to my J script? My IT guy says we are using >some-damn-thing-from-Microsoft that establishes sessions and gives a >session ID that should go into each form. So my J script could put all >that into each screen. > >Forms and HTML I understand. And I can see that this would generate a >usable interface. I can start with that. > >Two questions: > >How should my guy debug his HTML-generating code? He will just be at >home with no server. Should I have him connect his browser to a port >that passes the form input into his J verbs? > >The HTML interface will work. But it wouldn't be really cool. If he >wants to make the user's screen fancy, does he have to use some language >like Flash or perhaps Java? Do we have examples of how such a program >would send information back to a server? (I assume the server interface >would still follow the HTTP spec). > >Henry Rich > >Joey K Tuttle wrote: >> All of the older systems supprt this very well using GCI. I like j as >> a server side engine and (almost) never use the GUI... >> >> Sent from my iPod - excuse terseness and typos. >> >> - joey >> >> >> >> On Mar 27, 2010, at 14:02, Eric Iverson <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Perhaps I misunderstand the architecture of your app. But if the >>> server runs >>> on a web server and the client runs on a browser then gtk is >>> probably not >>> the way to go. gtk is similar to the Windows API or Java and runs on >>> the >>> client and this doesn't sound like your situation. >>> >>> I think jhs is the way to go. Unfortunately you are a bit ahead of >>> the curve >>> and there is no documentation and the current code in jhs that could >>> be used >>> as templates is very very rough. >>> >>> Basically one one needs to know html/forms/css/javascript. Then it >>> is easy >>> to have jhs serve a form to the browser that has displayed html, input >>> fields. buttons, checkboxes, select lists etc. The user causing an >>> action >>> (pressing a button) runs a J sentence on the server and this send >>> back a new >>> html page to the browser. For a simple app you can get away without >>> javascript and that simplifies things quite a bit. >>> >>> You can start by getting a handle on html and forms. There are many >>> books >>> and web references for this stuff. Then css can be used to refine the > >> appearance and give a better separation between content and >>> presentation. >>> Finally you can hook it up to a jhs task. >>> >>> You can take a look at this on your own machine by installing the >>> current >>> beta. Although still a bit of a mess you can take a look at >>> ~system/extras/util/jhs/core.ijs jijx.ijs jijs.ijs file.ijs. Your >>> app will >>> probably be a single file similar to file.ijs that creates a locale >>> with the >>> app name. The file contains event handlers and the code to send back a >>> proper html page as the result. >>> >>> Please let me (and the beta forum) know how it goes and ask >>> questions as >>> your project moves along. Start with a dead simple app that has a >>> single >>> text field and button in a form and have the button flip the text. >>> Once you >>> can do that it is a simple matter of more of the same. >>> On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 1:34 PM, Henry Rich <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I have my students working on their project that will become a web- >>>> based >>>> J app. The student in charge of the user interface is now ready to >>>> start coding and I need advice on how he should start. >>>> >>>> I read in this forum that there is something called jgtk on the >>>> way. Is >>>> there a preliminary version of this that I can show him? If not, any >>>> ideas on when one will be available? If not that, then any tips on >>>> what >>>> to expect, and how he can use existing gtk documentation to get >>>> started? >>>> >>>> His program will run on the server, using the user's browser as the >>>> input device. IIRC, this means that jgtk is the correct way for >>>> him to >>>> write his GUI. >>>> >>>> Henry Rich >>>> --- >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/ >>>> forums.htm >>>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
