Hi Everybody,

Today I downloaded the EWB trail and spent most part on the day playing with it, and really liked the idea and implementation.

One thing that concerns me is the proposed delphi backend implementation. It seems like a thin layer over webbroker and in my very limited experience it can get quite messy fast, even for medium size applications.

I wonder what are you guys using for the backend, regarding data access and thread management. Are you using Delphi with EWB Modules or you choose a different approach? maybe PHP or similar?

Regards,
Mario

Mario Enríquez wrote:

> I wonder what are you guys using for the backend, regarding data
> access and thread management. Are you using Delphi with EWB Modules
> or you choose a different approach? maybe PHP or similar?

There are a number of posts where people have explained in detail their
back-ends (if you need one, and most do). Me, I use the RemObjects SDK
(see http://matthew-jones.com/why-do-i-use-remobjects/ for my post on
why) as it allows me to do high level interface stuff, and use full
threading and things for complex operations. I have though used an
ASP.Net backend, and it depends on what your purpose is, and what you
are familiar with.


--

Matthew Jones

I wonder what are you guys using for the backend, regarding data access and thread management. Are you using Delphi with EWB Modules or you choose a different approach? maybe PHP or similar?

I am actually using Webbroker deployed as an ISAPI dll with the EWBDataset components. Seems to work just fine for me, although I wouldn't say the application is very large, more a portal over an existing Win32 app. Most of the work is simply processing data requests and responses.

Mario Enríquez wrote:

>> I wonder what are you guys using for the backend, regarding data access and thread management. Are you using >> Delphi with EWB Modules or you choose a different approach? maybe PHP or similar?

Hi Mario.

EWB is indeed a powerful and flexible product. We have our own server that presents a REST API to the outside world. We use EWB to build web applications that talk directly to that API. It works extremely well.

Matthew,

Thank you for commenting your backend approach, I just read you blog about RemObjects and it looks like a nice complement to EWB. Will have to look further on this…


regards,
Mario

"Matthew Jones" wrote:

There are a number of posts where people have explained in detail their
back-ends (if you need one, and most do). Me, I use the RemObjects SDK
(see http://matthew-jones.com/why-do-i-use-remobjects/ for my post on
why) as it allows me to do high level interface stuff, and use full
threading and things for complex operations. I have though used an
ASP.Net backend, and it depends on what your purpose is, and what you
are familiar with.


--

Matthew Jones

Chris,

For the scenario you describe, web broker (ISAPI) should be great and I'm glad it works for you.

For the record, I do like Webbroker and have used it a couple of times with great results. As long you keep thinks simple, the performance and source maintainability is fine.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Mario

Chris Clark wrote:

I am actually using Webbroker deployed as an ISAPI dll with the EWBDataset components. Seems to work just fine for me, although I wouldn't say the application is very large, more a portal over an existing Win32 app. Most of the work is simply processing data requests and responses.

Mark,

Do you use a particular framework for you REST API layer? is it Delphi based?

I'm interested in hearing more details about you approach, if it is ok for you to share it.

Regards,
Mario

Brooks wrote:

Hi Mario.

EWB is indeed a powerful and flexible product. We have our own server that presents a REST API to the outside world. We use EWB to build web applications that talk directly to that API. It works extremely well.

Mario Enríquez wrote:

>>Mark,
>>Do you use a particular framework for you REST API layer? is it Delphi based?
>>I'm interested in hearing more details about you approach, if it is ok for you to share it.
>>Regards,
>>Mario

Hi Mario - no problem

The REST Server is written by us in .NET. It provides a REST API that can be used to interact with our database. We use this API ourselves for our web clients and also licence it to some customers.

Our web clients are (mostly) written in EWB. We have a library of EWB code that includes a TCastrumConnection class. This class has a method for each of the API commands e.g. TCastrumConnection.GetCastrumTask. Every method includes a callback parameter (at least) to return an HTTP code and any associated JSON.

Inside the TCastrumConnection class we use an EWB TServerRequestQueue to perform the HTTP puts, posts, gets and deletes that make up the API. Even under very heavy duress this mechanism seems highly robust.

Any JSON that is returned by an API call (via the callback) is parsed within an appropriate class e.g. the JSON from a call to TCastrumConnection.GetCastrumTask would be parsed by an instance of TCastrumTask and used to populate that task accordingly. As such we have a wide range of classes that map onto the Castrum REST API.

Hope this makes sense.
Mark

After some troube with my own Indy-based server I am now using Tim's
server and some modules in addition to access datasets created by
StoredProcedures, sending mails etc.

Works fine without any problems.

Uli

Hi Mario,

<< I wonder what are you guys using for the backend, regarding data access and thread management. Are you using Delphi with EWB Modules or you choose a different approach? maybe PHP or similar? >>

I use PHP and MySQL on the backend, running on a Linux server.

Regards,

Steve