New topic: What I want from WE / RS based web development.
<http://forums.realsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?t=47111> Page 1 of 1 [ 1 post ] Previous topic | Next topic Author Message J.Sh3ppard Post subject: What I want from WE / RS based web development.Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:53 pm Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:44 pm Posts: 586 Hey guys. I typed this up as I was posting; I didn't really proof read it so incase it's too long or redundant, apologies. What I want from WE / RS based web development. Maybe you do too? As I venture further into web development and I think about WE I keep thinking to myself what I'd like to have in a RS web development (RS/WE) product. I'm wondering if any other developers also like these ideas? I'd like an alternative option to creating webpages and functioning web apps. I think having something that's universally accepted on shared servers is key. I think using lower server resources is also key. I think RS or WE needs : *Having drag and drop web page layout ability which generates php scripts for the server backend from our Realbasic code. Static pages that don't have functionality wouldn't use php but we'd still be able to create the web pages that are actual web pages and not resource hogging web app pages. It could also use jQuery for other features like image sliders, calendars and more. We'd have full access to the page code and script code so we could even add or fix our own features if RS didn't support it or has a bug. Php is rock solid. Almost zero bugs (So far I have not encountered one bug yet). If you do come across a php bug there's going to be an easy workaround. If Real Studio interpreted Realbasic into php code there's hardly any potential for RS or php bugs which means this type of system would be highly reliable to us RS customers. WE is complicated to develop. There's a lot going on under the hood. WE is filled with weird issues and many complaints from WE developers. WE is supposed to be a turnkey web app based system but in reality it's not. There's often a lot of strangeness that needs to be done to get a WE app working correctly and if your web host changes a setting your whole WE app can come crashing down without you knowing how to fix it. Then you're left scrambling around while your business is slowly dying. And after all that, ultimately web browsers are in control and they can change at any time destroying your WE app requiring you to fix it to the web browsers needs. Different browsers may have different requirements and you nor RS are in control of that. You must wait until RS gets around to patching WE and of course you then must buy the new version. WE is a more complex beast to develop than a php based tool. Web browsers are likely to always support php, HTML, CSS, and jQuery certainly within the next 15 years. I know WE uses those tools but it relies on more than that like Javascript complicating the process over something like using php. Php is fast. Php is reliable. Php is universally accepted on servers everywhere. Php is the most developed language on the net. Php is free. One thing I could see RS complaining about is the fact that php code isn't compiled so they'd be afraid of people building and not paying for WE. Different things could help prevent that : *Maybe only display the test build pages using their own RS HTML renderer while keeping the HTML/CSS/php script code encrypted until built with a paid for version? The developer could see the result page and php functionality while RS would not give up any freebie HTML/CSS/php code ensuring sales. If the default browser was used php code isn't viewable in a browser anyway -it's server side. Only the HTML/CSS/jQuery code would be viewable but RS could even keep the jQuery files on lockdown unaccessible to the unpaid developer then later upload them to the developers server for the final deployment. Of course for paid versions the jQuery files could also be accessed locally. *Lower the cost of WE so it's not worth the developer's time to circumvent any used protection. If these features were reasonably priced a lot of people would buy it rather than waste their time trying to crack or get around protection. Even non professional web developers that are learning. Currently with WE's high price and strict requirements it's really only geared towards professional web developers - those trying to make money doing consulting jobs for others. $100 to $150 would be fair for what I'm talking about and I'd bet RS would sell more than 4.5 times the copies of WE sales since it'd be php based which is accepted on every server on the net and the most widely used language on the net. Look at website coding job postings and you'll find many php jobs or jobs that could easily be done with php but not with WE because of it's limitations. I don't know how many developers are going to be buying WE at $450 and then dealing with all of it's headaches and issues? I know RS is going to offer their hosting to simplify the issues which is great but WE developers are still going to be paying a lot more for hosting than a php based system. Over time the added costs will make it unfavorable and many will go elsewhere. Maybe they'll buy it once or twice but in the long term they may dump it for something better with less restrictions and lower costs. A php / jQuery based tool could let the developer customer choose which jQuery tools to purchase (sold individually perhaps) from RS and if the developer didn't want to pay for certain jQuery tools then he could add them to his pages himself since the source is unlocked. A possible model might be like this you buy the basic RB / php webpage layout toolkit for a reasonable price and then pay extra for the cool jQuery items letting the developer pay as he goes so he can buy and build what he needs when he needs. A much better situation than an all or nothing expensive WE purchase where you can't even fix the code yourself that requires funky hosting. A student, hobbyist or person that only needs a couple web apps isn't likely to spend $450 for WE then have to pay high monthlies to host it. Most will say 'No thanks'. It doesn't make sense. A student, hobbyist or the person who needs to create a couple web apps is much more likely to pay $100 or $150 and put their web creation on much lower cost shared hosting. Unfortunately WE apps aren't allowed on a shared hosting environment and WE currently requires a VPS or a dedicated server with great internet bandwidth for correct functionality. WE also consumes a lot of server resources which lessens it's usefulness while raising it's hosting costs. That eliminates many uses and potential customers ( us developers lose work ). I think if there was an option to easily build standard webpages and generate the php scripts for the backend WE would become much more popular. These features would be easier to develop than the current WE architecture which relies on more complex web technologies where a lot can and does go wrong. I look at WE and I do see some uses for it but in many ways it's very limiting and expensive and a controlled environment in comparison to what's out there. Realbasic code is faster and more fun to develop with than php. Real Software got this correct, yay! Php is uglier and not as fun to develop with but it's reliable, it's fast in execution and it's accepted everywhere even on low cost shared hosting which is the most common hosting on the net. It would be amazing to be able to drag and drop your web page UI then write Realbasic code and build out fully functional php scripts for your pages. Unlocked, unhindered and not requiring any expensive weird hosting while giving us the ability to fix or customize features that wouldn't be supported. If RS doesn't want to do these new web features, maybe a someone (MBS?) would create a web dev kit plugin for RS desktop which can do what I've written? Does this sound interesting to anyone else? Top Display posts from previous: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by AuthorPost timeSubject AscendingDescending Page 1 of 1 [ 1 post ] -- Over 1500 classes with 29000 functions in one REALbasic plug-in collection. The Monkeybread Software Realbasic Plugin v9.3. http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/plugins.shtml [email protected]
