On Aug 21, 2009, at 10:33 AM, Sam Souvlaki wrote:
> > > > Hi, > > I'm new to Ruby on Rails. I must admit, the Ruby language is quite > straightforward for me, but the Rails thing has me a bit confused. > Here > is my problem, I can't quite figure out what the best approach would > be. > > I have data in various tables on a server X running Windows, IIS and > MS > SQL Server which I control and which is not accessible to the public. > Separately, I have Ruby on Rails setup on a linux webhosting service > elsewhere. > I need to make a web interface (secure with HTTPS and Login) on the > linux webserver which in turn accesses and manipulates the data on the > Windows machine. > > From what I read about Ruby on Rails, it is difficult to interface > with > existing systems, as there are rigid rules on the way the database > should be built (for example the required ID field in every table). I > get the impression that Rails are mostly suited for standalone > webserver > applications. That is my impression, but I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. So > before giving up on Rails I decided to join this forum and ask for > some > advice. My other option is to build my web interface in PHP. But I > like > the idea of high level rapid development and am willing to learn Ruby > and Rails. > > Idealy in Rails I would use standard HTTP POST (or xmlhttprequest) on > the backend to send requests from the webserver to the windows > machine. > I would like my windows machine to be considered as a datasource but > using HTTP instead of SQL directly to manipulate the remote data > (IIS on > the windows box would do the actual SQL bits). > > Or is there a better strategy? Sounds reasonable to me. Do some research into 'REST' and 'restful interfaces' and 'Active Resource'. You don't have to use REST... you can use SOAP or XML-RPC or work up your own. But there's some nice stuff in Rails for making a model that normally talks directly to a database talk to a RESTful server without your code needing to know anything... -philip --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
