Enrique,
This is a big question, and I will give you my 2 cents.
Running R:base on the web?
Depends on if you just need a few people accessing your database, or you need
a lot.
If you just need a few people accessing the database, go buy a few dedicated
machines, get a dedicated internet connection w/ static ip addresse, and put
pc anywhere on the machines. You are off to the races with very little time
and money invested. You will not have to re-write any code.
If you need a full blown web site using R:base, you have a lot of options:
1. You need Oterro - the R:base ODBC connection!
2. You need a web server and internet connection.
3. You need something running on the web server that can build web pages on
the fly from your ODBC data source. There are several products that do this.
They are not cheep. Tango and Cold Fusion are both options along w/ other
things. These server products start around $3000 per server.
4. You have to purchase the development package that goes w/ #3
5. You have to learn how to use #3 and #4 along w/ HTML.
6. You have to Re-build your entire application for whatever platform you
choose in #3 and #4.
Crystal reports will only generate reports for you. You still need Oterro for
the ODBC connection. You better get your check book out. Crystal Decisions
web based report generator costs about $1000 per concurrent user.
Personally I am using Tango. Why? I know a crazy guy in Pittsburgh that
sells it, and I know it works really well w/ R:base. When I played around w/
Cold Fusion, I could not get CF to pull BLOBs out of the database and Tango
will.
As far as forward thinking about a products life:
The internet is not going away. Personally I think anyone that is designing a
large multi user system that is not planning on making it web based is nuts.
HTML is a bug ugly thing that we are all going to be forced to learn! OK, w/
that out of the way, R:base is SQL based and you access it through an ODBC
connection. Every database out there has an ODBC connection. So, if you build
a web base app using the ODBC connection, and all of a sudden your business
out grows R:base (good luck) or you decide for whatever reason you need to
change database, it is a piece of cake. It would just take a few days to
trade the database out for something else. You just unload the data from one
database, and load it back into the new one. This is why we use ANSI level 2
SQL database to begin with. Don't forget these other databases that you would
want to change to cost over 10 times as much.
Now if your app is developed in Tango, and somthing happens to Tango and it
goes away, what do you do? Your apps written in Tango are 75% HTML and just
the data access command and the program control is tango based. It would not
be too dificult if you had to switch to a different product because all of the
Tango HTML would not need to be modified.
Troy Sosamon
>===== Original Message From [EMAIL PROTECTED] =====
>Perhaps this has been discussed before, but I am knew to this list... If
>there is a description/discussion of the possibilities some place, please
>let me know.
>
>What options are there for running RBASE on the web?
>
>Some of the things that I am considering to be important in decision making
>are:
>
>1. Is this a long term solution or will the technology go away and then I
>have to start all over? (VERY IMPORTANT).
>2. What is the cost of royalties to companies? A one time developer runtime
>fee is my preferred route, but reasonable royalties per user is also OK.
>3. What is the development cost? That is, how easy it is to create the
>front end/application?
>4. How will it run (speed, security, etc.)
>5. How universal will the solution be? That is, will it run on thin
>clients, handheld devices running Windows CE, any browser?
>
>Some options that I have looked into:
>
>A. Running RBASE with a web browser using some technology that allows me to
>run RBASE natively in a browser. You can see an example at:
>http://www.tarantella.com/cgi-bin/demo.cgi . Cost of 5 user license is
>about $750 (you need web server, etc.)
>
>B. Tango. I am not sure how easy it is to create an interactive front end
>with it, but seems a nice solution. My main concern is if the code written
>is in some way difficult to reconvert if Tango goes away (see the Pervasive
>home site). Are 10 user licenses available? What are the costs to deploy a
>solution for a customer with 10 users?
>
>C. ASP created with some RAD tool such as MS VisualInterdev. Allows you to
>create more or less heavily on the client/server side as desired. Cost
>about 600 dollars for MS VisualInterdev - no runtime royalties. Can you
>write procedures to be run by RBASE and call these procedures from an ASP
>page? Has anyone tried this? No fees except the regular fees for a server.
>Solution also includes Active Data Objects 2.x and Remote Data Objects .
>Allair's Cold Fusion does the same thing but you need an additional CF
>server to run the CF Markup Language and this can be expensive.
>
>D. Some programming language such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft
>Visual C++, Borland C++ Builder, Borland Delphi, but I'd rather stay away
>from programming (I'd rather do my programming with RBASE).
>
>E. Crystal Reports - this is only a report writer, right? Or can I create
>input forms also?
>
>F. Other
>
>Since I know nothing about any of these solutions I am free to go the best
>route. I would love to have RBASE as the in-house application running my
>database but any help.
>
>Enrique Wintergerst
Troy Sosamon
Denver Co
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
