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Thread Can Web Builder do the job for me?
Sun, Mar 8 2015 5:29 AMPermanent Link

MikeB

Hello expert users! I am trying to determine if Web Buider will meet my requirements for a small project.
Firstly, I am retired and haven't programmed for 5 years, and know zilch about web programming. My work experience was mainly small desktop windows apps, and D1-D2-D3-D5 were sufficient for my needs (though I do have an unused copy of D2009 stuck away).

An ex-colleague asked me if I could do a project for him.
It involves reading realtime data from CSV files being updated by another app, and secondly, displaying it on a web page which will be accessible via user login to users around the world. The first part should be easy enough to do.

It's creating the web page that I have no idea about. A search turned up Web Builder amongst others.
Now it seems if I was just using WB's standard components eg a grid to display the data that would be easy I guess. However my ex-colleague wants the user to be able to select some of the data to also be diaplayed in various analog formats: eg dials, gauges and compass direction.

Now I have a nice components library containing all those things for D5. But the million dollar question is: does your compiler program work with 3rd-Party component libraries. Or simply put if I create my Delphi form with a grid and sundry gauges from the 3rd-Party library, can your compiler turn it all into JavaScript? Or have I misunderstod the way WB works?
Sun, Mar 8 2015 6:38 AMPermanent Link

Matthew Jones

MikeB wrote:

> Or have I misunderstod the way WB works?

Simple answer is "Yes". But not too badly. Basically, WebBuilder is a
totally new system that just happens to work very much like Delphi
does. Drap and drop components from the EWB palette, and code the
events etc. But nothing from Delphi, other than a bit of code perhaps,
will be used. Certainly no Delphi components.

To do your project, you need to have a service running on the PC (or
Mac?) which has a thread to read and update the data. It could perhaps
be feeding it into a database, which would allow you to use the EWB
supplied web server to allow users to access the web application, and
the data from the database. Using smart queries, and the EWB grid etc,
you can display the results. For compasses etc, you can do custom
drawing on a canvas. (In EWB 2, out soon, a component could be written
to make that easier perhaps.)

So, it is very much doable, but unlike a Delphi desktop application
where you run everything in one executable, you need a reader, a web
server (perhaps with database or other API to access the data) and then
your EWB application to ask the web server for the data to display. EWB
is by far the best way for a Delphi-head to write browser applications.

Sounds to me like a weather application, and I dream of a decent one.
The current weather applications are user interface horrors. Heck, I
even sketched out how I'd do it all, but there appears to be no money
in them. Good luck!

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Matthew Jones
Sun, Mar 8 2015 2:35 PMPermanent Link

MikeB

"Matthew Jones" wrote:

>So, it is very much doable
...
>Sounds to me like a weather application, and I dream of a decent one.
>The current weather applications are user interface horrors. Heck, I
>even sketched out how I'd do it all, but there appears to be no money
>in them. Good luck!

Hi Mathew,

Thanks for your useful comments!
Elevate Web Builder sounds pretty good!

The project is weather related, being met data collected in various locations around the world by data loggers which are interrogated via a URL or radio modem by the manufacturers custom software. They just want it to be made available on a web page which looks clear and professional possibly with flexible display options. I believe the collected data is stored both in CSV format files as well as in a proprietry database. I don't yet know if there is an API available to access this, but assume there is.

However, I can see I would struggle to complete this project, and I probably don't need the stress!
(I have never created a Windows service app or component or drawn on the canvas. I merely used Delphi off-the-shelf components to do my simple projects).

Are we alowed to post email addresses here as I would like to discuss this project privately, should you be interested in it?
Mon, Mar 9 2015 5:05 AMPermanent Link

Matthew Jones

MikeB wrote:

> (I have never created a Windows service app or component or drawn on
> the canvas. I merely used Delphi off-the-shelf components to do my
> simple projects).

They aren't that hard, but as with anything they can be different. It
depends on the level of the project of course. A hobby would be
sensible learning, commercial less so.


> Are we alowed to post email addresses here as I would like to discuss
> this project privately, should you be interested in it?

You can easily work out my email address from my header...


--

Matthew Jones
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