First I a wondering if there has been any consideration to make a DBISAM or EWB lite versions for Android. Not sure if that would be feasible. I would use it for sure.

With that I have a need for an application now that will allow me to create an app with field data on the mobile that I would need to sent client data to a remote DBISAM server.  I would also need to retrieve data from the server.  Just wondering what my current options may be, or best proven methods to use to develop.

John Postnikoff

On 11/13/2014 12:03 PM, John Postnikoff wrote:
> First I a wondering if there has been any consideration to make a DBISAM or EWB lite versions for Android. Not sure if that would be feasible. I would use it for sure.

Not for DBISAM (there is lot of code there specific to windows -
file/folder handling for starters , etc) nto to mention EDB is the newer
kid on the block still under active development.

That being said there has not been any consideration given to EDB yet
either. Tim had mentioned at one point of future EDB server versions
maybe including some JSON capability but that would be still out -
considering there is no eta on EDB 3 yet i would not rely on this if you
need something now.

EWB (web server) can already serve the data up to any mobile device -
you'd still need to write the part than handles the receiving side (JSON
parsing essentially).


> With that I have a need for an application now that will allow me to create an app with field data on the mobile that I would need to sent client data to a remote DBISAM server.  I would also need to retrieve data from the server.  Just wondering what my current options may be, or best proven methods to use to develop.

What are you planning to write the mobile app in ?

Native, delphi FM or javascript ?

I know people have used Remobjects successfully and RO has code to help
with client side (but not for mobile delphi AFAIK) - commercial so will
cost you.

Delphi datasnap should work but you'd need minimum Enterprise edition of
delphi.

Or you could write your own server side as the DB side of things boils
down to a fairly simple json <-> dataset type logic. This is what i've
basically done for mobile apps.

TMS also has a business subscription that has a similar toolset (XData
part i think for this) but again you're looking at cost.

Raul

Hi Raul,

I am planning to use Appmethod or Delphi XE7. Just going through a evaluation process right now.
What I was thinking of doing on the Android side was storing my data in text delimiter files. I would then send them over to the server, which would be easy enough to import that data into the DBISAM server from delimiter files. I have tools for that.

I am not sure how to handle data on demand from the server. I also need to bring tables into the Android so I would need something to import, convert, or parse on the Android. That process could effect speed for sure but may create the validations I require. I am stuck on using DBISAM data on the server side and may have to consider trying to develop so everything runs off the server, which is another set of problems due to connection availability in some locations, which is taking me to research some SMS possibilities. I am actually trying to create a model using EWB that will exchange files for now.

John



Raul wrote:

On 11/13/2014 12:03 PM, John Postnikoff wrote:
> First I a wondering if there has been any consideration to make a DBISAM or EWB lite versions for Android. Not sure if that would be feasible. I would use it for sure.

Not for DBISAM (there is lot of code there specific to windows -
file/folder handling for starters , etc) nto to mention EDB is the newer
kid on the block still under active development.

That being said there has not been any consideration given to EDB yet
either. Tim had mentioned at one point of future EDB server versions
maybe including some JSON capability but that would be still out -
considering there is no eta on EDB 3 yet i would not rely on this if you
need something now.

EWB (web server) can already serve the data up to any mobile device -
you'd still need to write the part than handles the receiving side (JSON
parsing essentially).


> With that I have a need for an application now that will allow me to create an app with field data on the mobile that I would need to sent client data to a remote DBISAM server.  I would also need to retrieve data from the server.  Just wondering what my current options may be, or best proven methods to use to develop.

What are you planning to write the mobile app in ?

Native, delphi FM or javascript ?

I know people have used Remobjects successfully and RO has code to help
with client side (but not for mobile delphi AFAIK) - commercial so will
cost you.

Delphi datasnap should work but you'd need minimum Enterprise edition of
delphi.

Or you could write your own server side as the DB side of things boils
down to a fairly simple json <-> dataset type logic. This is what i've
basically done for mobile apps.

TMS also has a business subscription that has a similar toolset (XData
part i think for this) but again you're looking at cost.

Raul

On 11/13/2014 5:16 PM, John Postnikoff wrote:

John,

> I am planning to use Appmethod or Delphi XE7. Just going through a evaluation process right now.

If you have access to datasnap i would try it out - with XE7 mobile it
would "automagically" do lot of work for you on both client and server
side.


> What I was thinking of doing on the Android side was storing my data in text delimiter files. I would then send them over to the server, which would be easy enough to import that data into the DBISAM server from delimiter files. I have tools for that.

You could do that but i've personally found that more dataset oriented
approach on both sides makes things easier long term as you don't have
to go and fiddle with all the moving parts for every change.


> I am not sure how to handle data on demand from the server. I also need to bring tables into the Android so I would need something to import, convert, or parse on the Android. That process could effect speed for sure but may create the validations I require. I am stuck on using DBISAM data on the server side and may have to consider trying to develop so everything runs off the server, which is another set of problems due to connection availability in some locations, which is taking me to research some SMS possibilities. I am actually trying to create a model using EWB that will exchange files for now.

How do you define on-demand and what do you want to do with data ?

Datasnap and EWB (and RO,TMS) all have a very similar model where you
can generically request data (with filters, etc) and back-end reads it
from any db (i.e. dbisam), packages it into json and sends over. on
mobile device then the data is parsed into some local structure (usually
table or record/class) and you can work with it direct.

Depending what tool you pick there is more or less of less of that done
for you. However the nice thing is that most of the code will be very
generic - it's json parsing and adding to table or class - so once
written you can use it for all the data

Raulo

Hi Raul,

Thanks for all your comments. Looks like I am going to have to do some more upgrades to make it easier for me. XE7 with Datasnap looks like the answer for something I need now.

John


Raul wrote:

On 11/13/2014 5:16 PM, John Postnikoff wrote:

John,

> I am planning to use Appmethod or Delphi XE7. Just going through a evaluation process right now.

If you have access to datasnap i would try it out - with XE7 mobile it
would "automagically" do lot of work for you on both client and server
side.


> What I was thinking of doing on the Android side was storing my data in text delimiter files. I would then send them over to the server, which would be easy enough to import that data into the DBISAM server from delimiter files. I have tools for that.

You could do that but i've personally found that more dataset oriented
approach on both sides makes things easier long term as you don't have
to go and fiddle with all the moving parts for every change.


> I am not sure how to handle data on demand from the server. I also need to bring tables into the Android so I would need something to import, convert, or parse on the Android. That process could effect speed for sure but may create the validations I require. I am stuck on using DBISAM data on the server side and may have to consider trying to develop so everything runs off the server, which is another set of problems due to connection availability in some locations, which is taking me to research some SMS possibilities. I am actually trying to create a model using EWB that will exchange files for now.

How do you define on-demand and what do you want to do with data ?

Datasnap and EWB (and RO,TMS) all have a very similar model where you
can generically request data (with filters, etc) and back-end reads it
from any db (i.e. dbisam), packages it into json and sends over. on
mobile device then the data is parsed into some local structure (usually
table or record/class) and you can work with it direct.

Depending what tool you pick there is more or less of less of that done
for you. However the nice thing is that most of the code will be very
generic - it's json parsing and adding to table or class - so once
written you can use it for all the data

Raulo

On 11/13/2014 11:04 PM, John Postnikoff wrote:
> Thanks for all your comments. Looks like I am going to have to do some more upgrades to make it easier for me. XE7 with Datasnap looks like the answer for something I need now.

I'd suggest try it out using eval version (which i think is architect
edition) and see if it does what you want - then if  you're happy with
results you can get the upgrade but code will already exist.

Raul