Nick
Sat Oct 28 01:05:02 CDT 2006
Of the three choices, I'd go with the web services (or WCF services).
Creating a client dll that you distribute means also distributing the .Net
framework and, in general, dealing with all the hassles of rich client
deployment. You already deploy the powerbuilder client. No reason not to
have it call the web service.
You also get a couple more benefits:
-- your app moves some functionality to the web server. This reduces the
dependency on the rich client. You will be able to deploy a server-based
application that consumes the same services, allowing clients the ability to
choose if they want a rich client or a thin client.
-- business logic changes frequently. Moving the business logic to the
server reduces the cost of rolling updates out across an enterprise.
You have some concerns to deal with,chief among them is security of the
service. You also have to be concerned about the amount of communication
your app expects to do with the web service. It used to be 'free' for PB to
call the C code, but now it will cost resources for each call, so you want
to make fewer calls and make them more meaningful. If the PB portion of
your code expects to be very very chatty with the library, then a web
service may be less performant than you would like.
Calling code from the db is not a preferred solution, in my experience.
YMMV.
--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--
"Adrian Parker" <apparker@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:OeOxCjo9GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> We currently have a 4GL Application written in PowerBuilder and C. The
> PowerBuilder deals with the UI and the C does most of the business logic.
> We want to convert the C to VB.NET (as we use that in our web app and so
> am
> familiar with it), but don't know the best place to deploy it. The
> code
> is DB intensive, but also does a lot of calculations. We could just
> create an assembly that we call from PouwerBuilder on each client, or we
> could put it in a web service, or finally put it in the DB inself though
> that would mean our customers would have to upgrade to SQL Server 2005
> (currently using 2000).
>
> Any thoughts ?
>
> --
> Adrian Parker
> Ingenuity At Work Ltd
>
>