Madeliene, A combination you might like to put to them which I think would work well - PHP MySQL at the server with some Delphi or VB windows apps at the client end for data entry. There are quite a few Delphi components out there (many are free and open source) to connect to MySQL directly or you could do it through various standard tcp/ general server and client sockets and other gizzmos that come with Delphi. If you go this way rather than a Web interface it is a very easy matter to build in excellent security using out of the box encryption tools or your own in-house system working with similar at the other end in PHP. You could also do it with VB I suppose but Delphi (pascal) is much closer to C or C++ and PHP in philosophy and syntax, they are a much more natural partner and there are fair numbers of Delphi developers out there. I think your in house PHP people would adopt Delphi with reasonable ease if it is a matter of acquiring a client language in house in a hurry. C++ builder would also be a good choice if you already have C skills in house, the same huge range of Delphi components is available to C++ builder. There is also a client end implementation of PHP which I know absolutely nothing about but there is info on the PHP.net site.
There are also a lot of tools out there in the Delphi world for converting old FoxPro and dBase style data to SQL - or you can make your own very easily. PHP is also very good for that. Food for though? Cheers CD Give us a yell if you want some links to more info. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Madeleine D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 6:04 AM Subject: [PHP-WIN] PHP for Billing App > General Question for the experts: > > We are looking at PHP/MySQL as a possible for a devel project where we need > to replace an existing Billing app (currently in an ancient FoxPro), > running on mostly Win95/98 systems. > > Your thoughts on whether it could handle the front end successfully. The > data entry people (at indiv offices) need to be able to input multiple > addressess and appointments for a given client and then upload the data to > a central database (currently on a UX box). Security is a major issue - > they like being isolated to protect the client's data and would not be > interested in any kind of Web interface. Also, the forms would probably > need to be pretty extensive. > > That's not much to work with, I know, but that's about the extent of our > current knowledge. We haven't been able to get to the sites or the code yet. > > thanks for your input. > > Madeleine D. > > > -- > PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
