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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
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Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
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If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
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Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

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Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
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Desktop Question w/Was

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    #1

    Desktop Question w/Was

    I upgraded to Version 9. I have 3 user runtime.
    I bought an server application license.
    I was told that I can use my home computer as a server to access my database without converting my desktop app to a web app.
    Can this be done? If so how?
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Desktop Question w/Was

    The home PC as a server is true, but nothing else of what you suggested/were told. You cannot use your desktop to gain access to your data via the web. You need to build a web application to get to your data. The nature of your web app may be thin, just to view data, or a complete application to mirror your desktop app. But you have to write a web app in either case. The Tables and Reports (and some Code) are accessible, but still, you need to actually build the interface as a web application. And, you need to implement security at the web level, and a bunch of other stuff.

    So who told you (and what was your exact question; maybe it was a misunderstanding)?
    Steve Wood
    See my profile on IADN

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Desktop Question w/Was

      Maybe the person was talking about Remote Desktop? I use it to access my home server, and it works well. The part of my application that gathers data from my customers is a true "web app", and that part that I use to manipulate the data is a desktop app. Eventually, I'd like to convert the desktop app portion to a web app, but it was quicker to do it this way to get things up and running.

      Hope this helps.

      --Rob

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Desktop Question w/Was

        Jeff,

        I've been trying to figure out the best way to do this as well. Since I have a hybrid application, I wanted to leave it on my host computer for the web side, but the problem was how the client would access the desktop portion.

        You can use remote desktop apps and it does work. I don't want my client to log in and see my desktop though.

        I downloaded Hamachi which is a VPN software. I put in on my host computer and allowed access to the data for the client. I then downloaded Hamachi to my client's Server and mapped the network drive that I shared to be a drive letter.

        I put the runtime version on two of the client's machines, then had both of them looking at the shared vpn mapped drive. It worked but it took forever for the data to load (almost 3 minutes). Perhaps there is faster VPN software that won't slow down the speed, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

        Hope this helps
        Up and coming Alphaholic ;)

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Desktop Question w/Was

          Elena

          Just as a point of reference for the time delay you are experiencing using a VPN. There are several things that make a difference in speed - connection speed probably being the most important. But, when using a VPN you have to keep in mind it is just the same metaphor as being on a LAN. So, running your app over a VPN is bound to be SLOW because the data / forms etc. have to be transmitted over the VPN connection which is MUCH slower than being on the actual LAN.

          For remote performance, you will see your biggest benefit by running something like a VNC (remote desktop) since all the work gets done on the remote pc and only the resulting screen gets sent over the internet (no data). I use logmein.com - they have a free version - you just can't perform file transfers with it. That requires a pay version though.

          The slowness using a vpn will be hard to overcome in my opinion unless you have a T1 connection.

          Regards,

          Jeff

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Desktop Question w/Was

            I have logmein as well. These are clients though. They access this application all day long so it isn't the best scenario. Plus they'd be able to get to all of my files. I'll probably just end up putting everything on their server and use logmein just to make changes to their application after we roll it out.

            I just haven't seen a better option yet.
            Up and coming Alphaholic ;)

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Desktop Question w/Was

              I have done the same as you. Way too slow. I guess I am just going to bite the bullet and convert to a web versian of my desktop app.
              Good luck with yours.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Desktop Question w/Was

                I asked the sales person at Alpha about the WAS license.
                The question was " will I have to convert my desktop program to a web based one, if I purchased the license". The answer that I remember was " it is easy to do, and my clients would be able to access my data from my home server" Or something to that effect. I don't think that he was out right lying, but I do believe that hisanswer might have been misleading to me.
                No big lose, I just have much more work to do.
                I have tried the remote desktop solution, however, like others, I don't want my clients accessing my entire computer.

                Thanks.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Desktop Question w/Was

                  I've tried in vein to eradicate the word "easy" from those I know at Alpha. Richard has gotten away from it, but others must be hanging on. Maybe it sells, but I think the term does all of us a disservice. None of the applications I have built have been easy; exciting, fun, educational, but not easy. There is always something unique or obtuse about every project. It is easy to make a simple Grid, Dialog, or Menu, or drop in an image or a hyperlink, but not to build a usable application. If it was easy I wouldn't even enjoy my job.
                  Steve Wood
                  See my profile on IADN

                  Comment

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