Creating web-based apps with VFP8 vs Starting with .NET solution

Hi all,

I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company. He
said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem is,
although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out of
three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).

Question:
1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
next the Tuesday?
2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
other alternatives?
3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if I
can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET is
designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever learn
VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?

TIA,
Willianto

Leemi
Thu Jul 31 13:42:46 CDT 2003

Hi Willianto:

I cannot coach you on the selling points or the comparison to .Net, but I
do have some ideas on for resources on learning to integrate a VFP app with
the Web.

There are two books that deal with the Web on www.hentzenwerke.com. Look
for

Internet Applications with Visual FoxPro 6.0
by Rick Strahl
Edited by Gary DeWitt

WebRAD: Building Web Database Apps with Visual FoxPro & Web Connection
by Harold Chattaway, Randy Pearson, Whil Hentzen
Edited by Barbara Peisch

Also, go to Rick Strahl's site www.west-wind.com and take a look at all
the information he has regarding the development of Web-based VFP apps.

I hope this helps.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sincerely,
Microsoft FoxPro Technical Support
Lee Mitchell

*-- VFP8 HAS ARRIVED!! --*
Read about all the new features of VFP8 here:
http://www.universalthread.com/VisualFoxPro/News/VFP8Release.asp
Purchase VFP8 here:
http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=11518

Keep an eye on the product lifecycle for Visual FoxPro here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodv
- VFP5 Mainstream Support retires June 30th, 2003
- VFP6 Mainstream Support retires Sept. 30th, 2003
>Hi all,

>I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
>wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company. He
>said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
>to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
>applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem
is,
>although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
>touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out
of
>three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
>other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).

>Question:
>1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
>next the Tuesday?
>2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
>VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
>other alternatives?
>3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if I
>can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
>if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
>4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
>much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
>scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
>book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET
is
>designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
>>started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever
learn
>VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?

TIA,
Willianto

Marc
Thu Jul 31 14:34:21 CDT 2003

Willianto,

We have a similiar situation to what you describe, but the client is another
division of our company. I have reviewed this product, and it looks like a
homerun for certain types of applications. The best part is that you run a
VFP application natively on the server. The bad part is that you need a
beefy server if you have many user connections. We d/l'd the demo, and ran
it here and on a mediocre server got good performance with 5 people logged
into our app.

http://www.graphon.com/

Check it out.

Regards,

Marc

"Willianto" <willianto@remove-me.telkom-and-me.net> wrote in message
news:e$oyP74VDHA.3220@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
> wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company.
He
> said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
> to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
> applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem
is,
> although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
> touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out
of
> three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
> other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).
>
> Question:
> 1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
> next the Tuesday?
> 2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
> VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
> other alternatives?
> 3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if
I
> can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
> if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
> 4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
> much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
> scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
> book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET
is
> designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
> started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever
learn
> VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?
>
> TIA,
> Willianto
>
>
>

Claude
Thu Jul 31 14:52:56 CDT 2003

Why don't you use ActiveVFP (www.activevfp.com)? It's free and does
everything other tools do. IMHO, it's also a lot easier. You also don't
have to explain that it's another company, etc., etc. It's just a COM
object that can be called from ASP or ASP.NET, technologies that people
already know about. It's also open source so you have access to all the
code. I personally would not do WWC or Foxweb because these are older
technologies and you need to pay more money for every box you install to. I
have used them all and ActiveVFP is the best alternative. ...
"Willianto" <willianto@remove-me.telkom-and-me.net> wrote in message
news:e$oyP74VDHA.3220@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
> wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company.
He
> said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
> to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
> applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem
is,
> although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
> touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out
of
> three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
> other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).
>
> Question:
> 1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
> next the Tuesday?
> 2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
> VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
> other alternatives?
> 3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if
I
> can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
> if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
> 4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
> much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
> scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
> book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET
is
> designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
> started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever
learn
> VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?
>
> TIA,
> Willianto
>
>
>

Claude
Thu Jul 31 15:02:18 CDT 2003

From the new MS VFP site:
Q. Can I use Visual FoxPro to build Web applications?

A. Visual FoxPro COM components can be used with Internet Information
Services (IIS) to build high-powered Internet database applications. This is
because Visual FoxPro components can be called from Active Server Pages
(ASP). Visual FoxPro is compatible with ASP but works even better in
conjunction with the more modern ASP.NET. The components will retrieve and
manipulate data, and will build some of the HTML returned to the user.

"Willianto" <willianto@remove-me.telkom-and-me.net> wrote in message
news:e$oyP74VDHA.3220@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
> wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company.
He
> said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
> to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
> applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem
is,
> although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
> touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out
of
> three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
> other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).
>
> Question:
> 1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
> next the Tuesday?
> 2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
> VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
> other alternatives?
> 3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if
I
> can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
> if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
> 4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
> much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
> scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
> book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET
is
> designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
> started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever
learn
> VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?
>
> TIA,
> Willianto
>
>
>

Dan
Thu Jul 31 16:35:01 CDT 2003

The learning curve for .NET *added to* the learning curve for a web
application at the same time might be a little much.

When attempting something you've never done before, it's suicide to attempt
it with a tool you've never used before. <s>

Dan

"Willianto" <willianto@remove-me.telkom-and-me.net> wrote in message
news:e$oyP74VDHA.3220@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I talked to a prospect yesterday. He has a plastic bag manufacturer and he
> wanted to create apps to maintain the data in his manufacturing company.
He
> said that there were already three software companies that gave a proposal
> to him. I will be the forth. All three companies are offering a web-based
> applications, thus he insist that mine should be web-based also. Problem
is,
> although I've been using VFP for almost four years by now, I have never
> touched a web-based application. For more information: two companies (out
of
> three) offered a Linux based solution (I think they'll use php), and the
> other offered a .net based solution (vb.net for sure!).
>
> Question:
> 1. Anybody got any idea what my selling point should be when I meet him on
> next the Tuesday?
> 2. How steep is the learning curve to create a web-based applications with
> VFP? I'm willing to invest in 3rd party product like WWC if I have to. Any
> other alternatives?
> 3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if
I
> can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
> if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
> 4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
> much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
> scratch with VS.NET. What makes me doubt is I read several pages of VB.NET
> book in our local bookstore this afternoon, and it looks like that VB.NET
is
> designed to create a web-based application from the beginning. The book
> started with creating a hello world web-based apps. Anybody here ever
learn
> VB.NET with VFP background? Do you have any suggestion?
>
> TIA,
> Willianto
>
>
>

Anthony
Fri Aug 01 02:26:26 CDT 2003

"Willianto" <willianto@remove-me.telkom-and-me.net> [WA] wrote:

>3. I was planning to buy VS.NET --- not in a near future actually, but if I
>can get this project, I might decide to buy it sooner. Will it do any help
>if I develop the apps with VFP ( I have VFP8 )?
>4. Considering that I am used to code in VFP, I assumed that it would be
>much easier for me to create the apps in VFP rather than starting from
>scratch with VS.NET.

Given the above, I'd recommend FoxWeb. While you have to pay for it, it probably
has the easiest learning curve (assuming you have reasonable HTML skills) - not
old technology at all (as mentioned elsewhere).

As for having to pay for it... well you expect to be paid for your work. You'll
have to make your own decision about the benefit of using a free product vs one
you have to pay for.

If you do need more than one FoxWeb server licence, it only means you have lots
of users and lots of income :-)


anthony shipley
-
Military Intelligence..... still an oxymoron!