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Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

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    Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

    Has anybody out there tried this - did it work OK ?

    Bob
    Bob Whitaker


    #2
    Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

    Hi Bob,
    This is a little out of the blue. From what/where is this question originating? Have you someone that suggested this would work? Someone said they were doing it that you suspect unreliable? Dreamed this up in a beer/wine filled afternoon?
    Mike W
    __________________________
    "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

      @Mike
      Microsoft Azure RemoteApp (Remote Application Services) is a Microsoft Azure cloud service that provides end users with access to Windows applications from any Windows, iOS, Mac OS X or Android device that has an Internet connection.
      RemoteApp uses the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol to deliver the applications, which appear as if they are native to the end user's computing device. RemoteApp can be deployed two ways: as a cloud deployment that stores all program data in an Azure cloud and is hosted there as well -- or as a hybrid deployment that is hosted in Azure but lets end users access data that's stored on their local network.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

        Originally posted by Mike Wilson View Post
        Hi Bob,
        This is a little out of the blue. From what/where is this question originating? Have you someone that suggested this would work? Someone said they were doing it that you suspect unreliable? Dreamed this up in a beer/wine filled afternoon?
        Mike The last sentence seems to suggest you know me too well.
        Now this the bit where I lay bare my stupidity.

        We were attempting to set up a desktop application on an Azure cloud server. We have the app running on a variety of cloud servers very satisfactorily. This particular app has a home grown licence key system which is checked as the app starts to ensure the licence is valid and not expired. This process simply would not work correctly and kept throwing a "Licence Expired" error when we ran it. The same app worked perfectly in other setups. So we did what we often do and looked for the complicated reason, maybe linked to some special quirk of Azure servers, hence my question, instead of looking at the blindingly obvious which turned out to be the regional date settings on the server duh!!

        For what its worth it does now run perfectly well on Azure.

        Bob
        Bob Whitaker

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

          Bob,
          What would be the difference between running as you describe and running on a hosted T/S?
          Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
          972 524 8714
          [email protected]

          ____________________
          "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

            Originally posted by martinwcole View Post
            Bob,
            What would be the difference between running as you describe and running on a hosted T/S?
            None at all it would seem and that is what we had hoped for.
            As you can see from my earlier reply it was a "schoolboy error" that gave us the problem not the environment.
            I can confirm that all is running as we would have wanted.

            Bob
            Bob Whitaker

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

              Just so I'm clear, Bob.
              You are running an Alpha DT application which is completely resident on Azure?
              Is this shadowed or is everything on the server?
              Did you load Alpha via an .exe, or build it locally and upload it?
              If these questions breach confidentiality, ignore me.
              See our Hybrid Option here;
              https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


              Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
              You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                Inquiring minds would like to know how you did it...
                Robin

                Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                  Originally posted by MoGrace View Post
                  Inquiring minds would like to know how you did it...
                  Sorry for the delay in responding.

                  We simply installed Alpha Runtime using the normal exe file on the server and then our application in a separate folder and as we are using a remote desktop connection there was no need or benefit in shadowing the application and it runs as well as if it had been installed on local network.


                  Bob
                  Bob Whitaker

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                    Thanks Bob, appreciate the exp.
                    See our Hybrid Option here;
                    https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                    Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                    You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                      So the setup on the cloud server is similar as to how you would do it on a regular workstation for a single user? Then your users just log in to the cloud server to use the app?
                      Robin

                      Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                        Thank you Sir Bob Whitaker for this info.
                        "Knowledge without application is useless."

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                          Hi Bob,
                          Hope you still visit here. Can you share with us how the app residing on the Azure server is going for you? Also, could you tell us EXACTLY how a user accesses the application in the cloud from their desktop ... is there a desktop shortcut, and if so what are the shortcut Target: and Start In: addresses? If not a desktop icon, how does a user open the app?. Does you app write data to files (.txt or CSV files) or only to the app tables? If your app writes to files, how is you app code designating file addresses for a cloud based file? Thanks
                          Mike W
                          __________________________
                          "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                            Originally posted by Mike Wilson View Post
                            Hi Bob,
                            Hope you still visit here. Can you share with us how the app residing on the Azure server is going for you? Also, could you tell us EXACTLY how a user accesses the application in the cloud from their desktop ... is there a desktop shortcut, and if so what are the shortcut Target: and Start In: addresses? If not a desktop icon, how does a user open the app?. Does you app write data to files (.txt or CSV files) or only to the app tables? If your app writes to files, how is you app code designating file addresses for a cloud based file? Thanks
                            Sorry for the delay in responding I have kind of retired now and don't visit as often as I used to.
                            The Azure server is just Microsofts brand name for a windows cloud based server and as such you use RDP to access it. When you rent/buy the server you get the necessary connection details and log onto the machine as administrator, upload a Runtime executable for Alpha along with your application. Install the runtime and set up exactly as you would on a local server. Then configure your users and password and rights. Then each user needs a suitably configured RDP file on their local desktop which will connect them to the server.
                            In some instances we give the user full access to the remote desktop and they start the Alpha application from it in the normal manner once they have logged on and in other instances we have had the alpha application start as soon as they log into the server and they are logged out of the server when they exit the app.
                            With regards to writing files it all works exactly the same way as a lan based server except the server is elsewhere in Auzureland.
                            Its also easy to configure local printers so a print job initiated on the cloud server prints to the users local printer.
                            Thought needs to be given to configuring email accounts which have to reside on the cloud server for the app to send emails.
                            Also if you are wishing to link files to records in the alpha app such as images or pdfs they must be uploaded to the server but again its exactly the same as local server
                            Hope this is clear
                            Bob
                            Bob Whitaker

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Desktop Application Running on Azure Cloud Server

                              Hi Bob,
                              Thanks for that overview, quite helpful. Our "app" is named URSA. It is the Alpha database and a file system with 21 primary work arena folders and then 4 to 5 levels of subfolders in each of the primary folders for storing all the various files for and from the application. Currently, I have a table named folder_directory that contains all the primary and subfolder addresses. So the address for one of the primary folders is "C:\URSA\DC\Administration" and a subfolder would be "C:\URSA\DC\Administration\Vendor_Contracts". The folder system is highly dynamic at the endpoint subfolders with many folders and files being added, moved and deleted by xbasic code during operation. So by what you are saying, the file addesses for all these folders and files would not change when moved to the cloud? And the xbasic code a5.get_path() would return "C:\URSA" ?
                              Mike W
                              __________________________
                              "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

                              Comment

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