I have some windows desktop applications build with DBISAM 2.x/4.x and Delphi. More and more customers ask for a solution in the first step to read their data from mobile devices. In second step they want to mange the data. All my applications work with FileServer multiuser environment. Now i am checking the obvious tools for this task.

Because of the different OS of mobile devices i am thinking of a webbrowser solution. Any other ideas?

To EWB. Until know i was not able to run the demo projects from my webserver. i am not very experienced about web technologies, especially JSON. HTML and CSS knowledge is ok - but no Javascript or php. I am able to integrate code snippets and slightly modified them, but not more. My questions:

How about printing solutions with EWB applications? For desktop i use FastReport.
How about importing/exporting data, mostly EXCEL format?
How about responsive design for EWB applications?
How about security and performance?
Thoughts about the idea to store the data files for the desktop application on some web store solutions like skydrive and read/write the files from EWB application and desktop application at the same time (record locks)? EDB or DBISAM?

I know, a lot of short questions for long answers. but i am a single developer and i have no time to read all the papers and FAQs, which often dont answer my questions. Furthermore English is not my first language. Thank you all for any hint or thought.

Thomas Grimm

I think that EWB is ideal for your purposes, primarily due to the fact it works
well on all modern browsers. You develop for one solution, and can be used across
many.

> How about printing solutions with EWB applications? For desktop i
> use FastReport.

You can continue to do this, perhaps with a link to download (and generate) the
reports. The report would be done on the server.

> How about importing/exporting data, mostly EXCEL format?

Again, do this server side, and deliver a file using a link if necessary.

> How about responsive design for EWB applications?

Hmm, sort of possible. I think it has docking and basic alignment, but what I do is
simply do the adjustments manually. It allows me to tweak the output according to
the screen and the device, either hiding things, or moving them. A little basic,
but I like the control.

> How about security and performance?

This is down to the server, more later.

> Thoughts about the idea to store the data files for the desktop
> application on some web store solutions like skydrive and
> read/write the files from EWB application and desktop application
> at the same time (record locks)? EDB or DBISAM?

Eeek!

If you have an existing application that is accessing a DBISAM server I'd stick
with that in some way.

First step is to decide the level of functionality you want the server to have. You
should define an API that will deliver what you want. Then you need to have a
service that will provide that API to clients. Me, I use the RemObjects SDK which
has a nice interface designer tool and provides the framework around it for the
http part too (https if you want as well). Alternatives are things like REST, or of
course the EWB server direct. The provided EWB remote support is basically a remote
database CUPS tool, which may be ideal for you. I prefer to hide the database
operations from the clients so I can change things as I wish, which helps with
varying clients, but given that the EWB application comes from the server, it can't
be out of date so is less of an issue. Security can be done by using simple https
to encrypt everything (recommended) or within your application. How secure you need
it depends on how it is used. If it is LAN only, less of an issue. If it might be
used in the internet, then you definitely want https (EWB can work via a tunnel if
needed).

So you now have a server that will do the client application's bidding, and all you
have to do is write the client. EWB has all the basic components you need, and is a
very Delphi-like environment. I've found it really good. Some have found that the
grid is quite basic, but as I don't have a lot of large data stuff, I tend to
create and replicate a TPanel and its contents which is then laid out in rows. I
can get the colours and fonts for cells just as I like this way.

Basically, you should certainly be looking at it hard. I think it ideal for you,
but of course you have to do some work on the server to make it work for you. The
best thing about using an intermediate comms mechanism is that you can always
change or add clients later. So if it goes big-time, you could do an iPad specific
one for example, using the same API.

/Matthew Jones/

Thomas,

<< I have some windows desktop applications build with DBISAM 2.x/4.x and
Delphi. More and more customers ask for a solution in the first step to read
their data from mobile devices. In second step they want to mange the data.
All my applications work with FileServer multiuser environment. Now i am
checking the obvious tools for this task. >>

DBISAM 2.x is going to be a problem, but DBISAM 4.x is fully-supported by
EWB.

<< How about printing solutions with EWB applications? For desktop i use
FastReport.
How about importing/exporting data, mostly EXCEL format? >>

Both of these would be handled by back-end Delphi code in a web server
module:

http://www.elevatesoft.com/manual?action=viewtopic&id=ewb1&topic=Modules

In fact, you'll probably be able to keep most of your existing
reporting/exporting code.  The main difference is that you'll need to export
the reports as HTML and then display them in the EWB application via a TPage
control.  Same is true with the Excel data.

<< How about responsive design for EWB applications? >>

EWB doesn't use traditional HTML layouts, so you're not going to see similar
concepts there.  Rather, you're going to see desktop-like concepts like
docking, which are still pixel-based and require some code to properly
organize/distribute your layout on multiple devices.

<< How about security and performance? >>

You're going to have to be more specific here.  This question is so broad as
to be meaningless.

<< Thoughts about the idea to store the data files for the desktop
application on some web store solutions like skydrive and read/write the
files from EWB application and desktop application at the same time (record
locks)? EDB or DBISAM? >>

No, that won't work.  If you want concurrent access to ElevateDB or DBISAM
databases, you're going to need add the EWB Web Server to the mix and have
it facing the Internet/your local intranet so that it can serve up data via
your EWB application.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Thank you Mathew and Tim so far.
I see, i have to learn and evaluate much more for making a decision, what is the right tools for my task,