Need to build connection strings on-the-fly

[parkjammer]

I am building a couple of mobile apps that work to display corporate data. While this can be configured at the back end (Alpha webserver, tables, etc), I want to offer some key users the option of building connections on-the-fly.

This would mean having the user enter typical connection info (server name or IP, database name and type, scheme/user/password, etc). I'd pass this in a form to XBASIC via an AJAX callback, assemble and test the string, and return any errors to the user.

With some rinse-n-repeat, the user would result with a working connection string and then I could list table and other objects for use in many different ways.

It's not that uncommon to do something like this in other languages, and the Alpha Builder itself does this. I just want to "mobile-ize" it.

Has anyone built something similar that I might borrow and bend? Or a finished package that I can buy and bend?

Thanks!

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Need to build connection strings on-the-fly

Don't know if anyone has done this but it sounds simple enough. I think the caveat is that you will still need a "hard-wired' conn string to access the web site. But any additional conns you wish to build could be done dynamically with a minimal amount of xbasic. Of course, how you actually apply it is another matter so it building a conn string is no big deal, the overall design may be a little more work.

[parkjammer]

Re: Need to build connection strings on-the-fly

Peter,

You are correct. There is nothing terribly challenging about this... I'm simply looking for ways to save some time if there are elements of this available from the community. My app already has a well defined connection from the mobile app to the webserver. The rest of it is so that under direction from the app, the webserver can reach out to previously undefined data sources to get or put information.

In big-enterprise world (back-end environments for multi-billion dollar manufacturers), I can use this as a quick-n-dirty ETL solution (Extract, Transform, and Loading of data). This would be "integration" by any other name.

Working on some neat stuff... just need to work faster, hence the desire to borrow and bend existing examples where possible.

Thanks.