Data Access Worldwide May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Web Applications Overview Vincent Oorsprong

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Agenda Little bit History DAW Web Solution came a long way What can you build with WebApp Server?

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 1998 WebApp 1.0 Shown at the EDUC in Maastricht ☼ Shown via a mobile phone Introduced as a new technique ☼ Web based DataFlex applications are better than static pages For early adopters

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 1999 VDF 6 and WebApp 2.0 First real release Separate products based on same core IDE for Windows development Studio for Web development WebApp 2.1 released for Windows 2000 support

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 2001 VDF 7 and WebApp 3.0 Main WebApp topic: ☼ WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 2003 VDF 9.1 New Studio for Web & Windows development ☼ You can develop fat or thin client applications with the same integrated Studio. ☼ For deployment you either purchase a Windows Client Engine or a WebApp Server License (or both)

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 2004 VDF 10 WebServices added Support for XML namespaces New (good looking) Wizards to generate Web Objects and pages

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide History 2005 VDF 11 Structs Arrays Project NNMCRI (Non Numeric Multi Column Record Identifiers). The RowId’s Struct and Arrays make webservices again easier to use

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Recent past VDF 12 Completely new written Studio ☼ Major shift in development process Language enhancement: Meta Tags AJAX framework in beta

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide What can you build?

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide WebApp Server What can you build with WebApp Server? Conventional Browser based applications WebService applications AJAX (Web 2.0) Applications

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Conventional Browser Apps Techniques involved: Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) VBScript & JavaScript (X)HTML

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide ASP Pages Page Reload Cycle User requests for original document ☼ E.g: Optional: Enter information Post the page to the webserver Processing of posted data / requests Response is a new document ☼ May have the same layout

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide ASP Pages Advantages Easy to build We have wizards to do a lot of work for you Based on Microsoft Standards (ASP / IIS) Disadvantages Does not look (very) modern these days ☼ Screen flicker due to page reload cycle ☼ Hard to make fancy things like small popups Requires IIS & ASP installed and functioning

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Samples Order entry system Electos websites Football pool websites And… many others…

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Football Pool Game to predict the scores 2004 (European Cup) ☼ (World Cup) ☼ (European Cup) ☼ Site not yet completed

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide IFrames

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide IFrame InnerFrame Advantages ☼ Load a page from a different URL ☼ Integrating 2 (or more) websites Disadvantages ☼ Still 2 sites (no combinations) ☼ Space for the page limited by Iframe size ☼ Second scrollbar may look “weird”

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide IFrame solutions Combine (integrate) multiple websites Samples: Electos sites ☼ Data Access Knowledgebase ☼ Data Access Bugtracker

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Webservices

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide WebServices Solutions over the internet / LAN / WAN Internally much XML Using HTTP / HTTPS protocol Follows the W3C standards Usually small requests Function based ☼ Small function, next small function

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Server side Offering all kind of functionality To the rest of the world To the LAN/WAN between applications ☼ Written in the same or different languages Perfect to disclose legacy data ☼ Many DataFlex applications contain valuable data Watch out for persistence! Like any other web application

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Client side Any client that support client side webservices Often.NET or Delphi application Browser can be the client but it is not likely Connecting to available functions

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Document types RPC Older style, use when the client does not support SOAP document style Document Modern, the way to go Visual DataFlex supports both (client and server side) but suggest (defaults to) the use of the document style

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide How to find webservices? UDDI Universal Description, Discovery and Intergration ☼ Still in start up mode Repository

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide WebServices build with VDF Football Pool 2006 (Called over 466,000 times!) webservice.wso Country Info (Called over 280,000 times!) Conversions r/conversions.wso

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide WebServices build with VDF Anagram Arendsoog Since YESTERDAY versions/TemperatureConversions.wso

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide WebServices build with VDF YOURS! Good way to get your site indexed by Google Positive support for Visual DataFlex!

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Web 2.0 (AJAX)

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Web 2.0 (AJAX) Modern technique Is Uses (X)HTML Uses JavaScript Page refresh cycle Screen does not flicker (does not need to rebuild on every request)

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Web 2.0 (AJAX) Framework Beta 1 available Uses ASP/HTML Uses Javascript with Webservice calls Combines Webservices apps & Browser apps

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Web 2.0 (AJAX) Framework Samples Included: Order Entry ☼ Online: Contact Management ☼ Online Under construction: Wines

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Questions Questions about the previous slides?

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Training Training from Data Access Europe available In Europe regularly ☼ See In the rest of the world on demand ☼ Contact your local distributor / DAW Office Training books online accessible via

May 16 – 18, 2007 Copyright 2007, Data Access Worldwide Thanks Thanks for your attention