Raul,

Thanks for the response (copied below). No criticism of the product or Tim
was implied in my earlier post, as I fully well realize the situation. I
don't know how Tim gets done what he does.

Thanks for the links. Turns out I had tried data type DateTime and it
worked, but you gave me the two missing pieces (types, functions) of the
manual that either weren't there in the initial build or I just plain
missed.

The most recent (July) build doesn't install, so I guess you do have to
purchase the product to get anything beyond the initial March build, which
I'll now do.

By the deployment option I meant that options and ability to specify a path
or URL in the Project Options | Deployment form aren't there (as they are in
the docs).  As a result I'm getting 404s when I try to deploy and don't know
why. I just run it from a real instance of IE.

As for the DBISAM comments, I am referring to server-side components that
can be accessed in a datamodule-like unit (or a form itself) and used to
generate data to be sent to the client. In other words, that the TDataSet
component can evenually be tied to a DBISAM table bringing with it paths and
field references or auto-generated JSON structures. Don't use EDB. All our
projects (and code) are tied to DBISAM.

In this initial release I seem to have no way to access databases and
knowing how this will work/map is crucial.

Jerry,


"Raul" <raul@removethis.raul.ca> wrote in message
news:FBD68437-EB9D-4CCE-8F65-AED0B28B7DDB@news.elevatesoft.com...

I agree that until documentation is complete it's bit tough to work with
EWB but i also believe Tim is code complete for the initial release and
working on those missing components.

I'll try to comment on some of the other items but reality is that the
product is still pre-release.

New builds are available from website if you have purchased EWB -
otehrwise Tim mentioned he is planning a trial version once it's out but
there is no ETA.

What do you mean by deployment options? It's javascript+html so all you
need to do is copy the output folder to a web server and you're done.
If you wrote a back-end web service then that needs to be deployed as
well but that is up to you depending on how and what you wrote the
service in (PHP, ASP, etc).

I'm not sure where you read about DBISAM but AFAIK there never will be
nor can there ever be DBISAM components for EWB. Since EWB is a
client-side javascript that runs inside the browser it has no file
system access (html5 web storage will help a bit but not in teh way
we're used to). Basically for now all data must be provided by the web
service and EWB has a TDataSet component to parse and easily use the
returned JSON data.

Best Tim can do is supply a EDB server and/or DBISAM server with the
built=in web server that returns JSON data - he has already done an
example one for EDB but i think full implementation is EDB v3 so you're
better off doing your own for now.

For data types and function to manipulate them i woudl suggest chking
help first :
http://www.elevatesoft.com/manual?action=viewtopic&id=ewb1&topic=Types
and
http://www.elevatesoft.com/manual?action=topics&id=ewb1&section=function_and_procedure_reference


Raul

Hi Jerry,

I definitely did not mean that it was criticism - i know exactly how you
feel : product has tons of potential and seems to do just what i'm
looking for but tryign to use it you run into "how to do X" a lot.

We did buy it and going to web site i can download latest build (you
need to check date time as they're all 1.00 build 1) - currently Jul
18th from this link:

http://www.elevatesoft.com/download?category=ewb

This version definitely has the "deployment" options but it's still just
a copy so you can duplicate this feature by copying the "output" folder
of your project into web server. It has FTP as well but i have not
checked if it works.

The DB access as i mentioned before is only thru a web service.

I don't know when Tim will get around to DBISAM as he's finishing up EWB
and planning new EDB so likely rolling your own DBISAM side is quickest
at this point.

They way i did it (still work in progress but mostly working):

1. host a web server in your app (Indy includes a built-in web server
that works just fine)

2. generate the JSON from it when requested by EWB (I just ended up
writing a generic JSON generator from TDataSet - basically it takes an
open DBISAM table/query spits out the JSON as expected by EWB.

The JSON is pure text so it's fauirly straightforward and EWB JSON spec
is here:
http://www.elevatesoft.com/manual?action=viewtopic&id=ewb1&topic=JSON_Reference

Doing the insert/update is similar except EWB would need to somehow send
the data to web service (i'm doing a POST with JSON as payload) which
then parses the input and goes and does the DBISAM side of things.

Feel free to post questions/issues as we're all going thru the same
issues and learning curve and can help each other.

Raul


On 7/19/2012 9:31 PM, Jerry Clancy wrote:
> Raul,
>
> Thanks for the response (copied below). No criticism of the product or
> Tim was implied in my earlier post, as I fully well realize the
> situation. I don't know how Tim gets done what he does.
>
> Thanks for the links. Turns out I had tried data type DateTime and it
> worked, but you gave me the two missing pieces (types, functions) of the
> manual that either weren't there in the initial build or I just plain
> missed.
>
> The most recent (July) build doesn't install, so I guess you do have to
> purchase the product to get anything beyond the initial March build,
> which I'll now do.
>
> By the deployment option I meant that options and ability to specify a
> path or URL in the Project Options | Deployment form aren't there (as
> they are in the docs).  As a result I'm getting 404s when I try to
> deploy and don't know why. I just run it from a real instance of IE.
>
> As for the DBISAM comments, I am referring to server-side components
> that can be accessed in a datamodule-like unit (or a form itself) and
> used to generate data to be sent to the client. In other words, that the
> TDataSet component can evenually be tied to a DBISAM table bringing with
> it paths and field references or auto-generated JSON structures. Don't
> use EDB. All our projects (and code) are tied to DBISAM.
>
> In this initial release I seem to have no way to access databases and
> knowing how this will work/map is crucial.
>
> Jerry,
>
>

Raul

Thanks. I'l digest this in the morning -- almost midnight here.

Other than validating the concept and general usage, I doubt I'll do any
serious coding with it until I have DBISAM drivers. Just don't have time to
screw around with interim JSON stuff. Everything we do is heavily dependent
upon databases.

Jerry

"Raul" <raul@removethis.raul.ca> wrote in message
news:B5151311-0B76-4860-98C7-4D6C2752B293@news.elevatesoft.com...
> Hi Jerry,
>
> I definitely did not mean that it was criticism - i know exactly how you
> feel : product has tons of potential and seems to do just what i'm looking
> for but tryign to use it you run into "how to do X" a lot.
>
> We did buy it and going to web site i can download latest build (you need
> to check date time as they're all 1.00 build 1) - currently Jul 18th from
> this link:
>
> http://www.elevatesoft.com/download?category=ewb
>
> This version definitely has the "deployment" options but it's still just a
> copy so you can duplicate this feature by copying the "output" folder of
> your project into web server. It has FTP as well but i have not checked if
> it works.
>
> The DB access as i mentioned before is only thru a web service.
>
> I don't know when Tim will get around to DBISAM as he's finishing up EWB
> and planning new EDB so likely rolling your own DBISAM side is quickest at
> this point.
>
> They way i did it (still work in progress but mostly working):
>
> 1. host a web server in your app (Indy includes a built-in web server that
> works just fine)
>
> 2. generate the JSON from it when requested by EWB (I just ended up
> writing a generic JSON generator from TDataSet - basically it takes an
> open DBISAM table/query spits out the JSON as expected by EWB.
>
> The JSON is pure text so it's fauirly straightforward and EWB JSON spec is
> here:
> http://www.elevatesoft.com/manual?action=viewtopic&id=ewb1&topic=JSON_Reference
>
> Doing the insert/update is similar except EWB would need to somehow send
> the data to web service (i'm doing a POST with JSON as payload) which then
> parses the input and goes and does the DBISAM side of things.
>
> Feel free to post questions/issues as we're all going thru the same issues
> and learning curve and can help each other.
>
> Raul

If you have RemObjects SDK, you could create an interface and talk to that. It
would be more secure etc I think too. (Other JSON interfaces are available I
think!)

As for the deployment, I didn't do anything for deploying my stuff. I just copied
the output folder. One change I did make though was for debugging, so that I could
talk to the RemObjects system. On the deployment, it is the RO service that is the
http server, so it can talk to itself. In debugging, it needs to talk to a
different port, so my code is simply:
   m_szHostAddress := window.location.host;
   if m_szHostAddress = 'localhost:8080' then
       m_szHostAddress := 'localhost:8099';
which detects if it is in debugging, and if so change to the other port for the
JSON queries.

/Matthew Jones/

Hi Jerry

Remember EWB is for web application development - i.e. all data will be
served up by a web server, not by direct connections into a database. I
doubt very much there will ever be a DBISAM driver - it wouldn't make
sense. JSON is not "interim" - it's the standard format used to serve
data to Javascript apps in a browser - not just in EWB.

I've been using EWB for several months now (actually since last
December) developing a pretty large scale app - although it's
pre-release it's been solid during that time.

As Raul and Matthew suggested try building a server app with an in-built
web server. This is where your DBISAM drivers will be, getting data and
serving it up in JSON format.

Cheers, Bob



On 20/07/2012 04:53, Jerry Clancy wrote:
> Raul
>
> Thanks. I'l digest this in the morning -- almost midnight here.
>
> Other than validating the concept and general usage, I doubt I'll do any
> serious coding with it until I have DBISAM drivers. Just don't have time
> to screw around with interim JSON stuff. Everything we do is heavily
> dependent upon databases.
>
> Jerry
>

Jerry,

in addition to the detailed answers of Raul, Matthew and Bob: there is a
testserver for DBISAM in the demos newsgroup with sources by Tim posted
last December.

The code is easy to understand and to modify to fit your needs.

I am just changing the basic code to work with EDB and it's not that
difficult.

Regards Uli

Don't have RemObjects. Did see something from Walter Matte on superobjects
that looked useful.

Jerry

"Matthew Jones" <matthew@matthew-jones.com> wrote in message
news:memo.20120720093127.5224B@nothanks.nothanks.co.uk...
> If you have RemObjects SDK, you could create an interface and talk to
> that. It
> would be more secure etc I think too. (Other JSON interfaces are available
> I
> think!)
>
> As for the deployment, I didn't do anything for deploying my stuff. I just
> copied
> the output folder. One change I did make though was for debugging, so that
> I could
> talk to the RemObjects system. On the deployment, it is the RO service
> that is the
> http server, so it can talk to itself. In debugging, it needs to talk to a
> different port, so my code is simply:
>    m_szHostAddress := window.location.host;
>    if m_szHostAddress = 'localhost:8080' then
>        m_szHostAddress := 'localhost:8099';
> which detects if it is in debugging, and if so change to the other port
> for the
> JSON queries.
>
> /Matthew Jones/

Uli, I don't see any demos newsgroup.

Jerry

"Uli Becker" <johnmuller54@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:D8AF62A9-BDA5-49A1-894A-90D782A62FB2@news.elevatesoft.com...
> Jerry,
>
> in addition to the detailed answers of Raul, Matthew and Bob: there is a
> testserver for DBISAM in the demos newsgroup with sources by Tim posted
> last December.
>
> The code is easy to understand and to modify to fit your needs.
>
> I am just changing the basic code to work with EDB and it's not that
> difficult.
>
> Regards Uli

Thanks to all for your posts. I just want to be clear regarding what I would
like to see.

I rarely, if ever, expose databases at the client side, preferring instead
to populate non-data-aware controls, paging if necessary. My concern with
EWB is how on the backend/server side to access a DBISAM database so that I
can use the records to populate those non-data-aware controls, such as combo
boxes, grids or whatnot, e.g., the equivalent of something like this:

 Grid1.Cells[0,Grid1.RowCount-1] :=
MyTable.FieldByName('SomeField').AsString;

Presumably, Tim will provide table components for his own products, namely
DBISAM and EDB, allowing statements similar to tha above. In the interim,
does anyone have a code snippet on how you would currently to this with WWB?

Such an example would go a long way towards making me a bit comfortable
here.

For the most part our ISAPI apps go to a "parameters" form from a menu. The
user fills out the parameters and clicks a Report button which will result
in a pdf, rtf or html report returned.

Which component, BTW, would I use to return pure HTML?

Jerry


"Bob Devine" <bobd@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:699EEAE8-0C44-4AF2-B1F9-240A69295AF6@news.elevatesoft.com...
> Hi Jerry
>
> Remember EWB is for web application development - i.e. all data will be
> served up by a web server, not by direct connections into a database. I
> doubt very much there will ever be a DBISAM driver - it wouldn't make
> sense. JSON is not "interim" - it's the standard format used to serve data
> to Javascript apps in a browser - not just in EWB.
>
> I've been using EWB for several months now (actually since last December)
> developing a pretty large scale app - although it's pre-release it's been
> solid during that time.
>
> As Raul and Matthew suggested try building a server app with an in-built
> web server. This is where your DBISAM drivers will be, getting data and
> serving it up in JSON format.
>
> Cheers, Bob

Jerry,

> Uli, I don't see any demos newsgroup.

http://www.elevatesoft.com/forums?action=view&category=ewb&id=ewb_demos

Uli