Web-enabling your Foxpro data

Although many companies have started making plans to migrate all their applications to Microsoft .NET technologies, there are still a substantial number of FoxPro applications in service today.  In fact, quite a few of our clients are running multiple FoxPro database applications, day in and day out.  Some even continue using Foxpro applications dating back to the DOS-based version of Foxpro.  Their reasons aren’t surprising:

• Fox is freely distributable.  Once you’ve paid to have a custom application developed, you're usually free to deploy it far and wide across your network.  Typically there aren't any additional per-seat fees associated with deploying your application to hundreds-even thousands-of additional users.
   
• Fox is fast. Unlike some of its competitors, which bog down under even moderate usage, a properly configured Fox application can fly through data, generate reports, mailings, batch emails-you name it-with the nimblest of ease.
   
• Fox is stable. Even when servers crash and there are no current backups (of course, this never happens at your office!) most often we're able to go back and repair a table that was corrupted if/when your server takes a nosedive.

Once applications have been built, tested, and running, most folks would prefer not losing sleep over data migrations, what with their potential for cost overruns and mutilated data.  The possible benefits of migrating to more user-friendly, prettier applications, is not enough to motivate most people to submit to the short-term pain.

 

What if ...

But what happens when your business expands, and you start opening branch offices?  What if you can’t justify the expense of installing a Wide Area Network (WAN)?

Or what if one of your top employees moves to the other side of the state, and you want to give him/her the ability to manage your data from home?

What if your IT department doesn’t have enough resources to keep up with new installs of your application?

 Well then, you’re stuck!  Or are you?  Have you considered web-enabling your Foxpro data?

 

For example,

Here's an example of a web site that reads and writes 100% of its data using Foxpro tables on the server

Figure 1.  www.taskasap.com

We use this site to manage software development projects for our clients.  All the data is stored in Foxpro tables, and can be accessed anywhere in the world using a web browser. Because of this site, it doesn't matter whether our clients are across town or across the country--they're able to get an up-to-the minute status on their projects any time.

Clicking on a line item allows clients to drill down into a task for more specific data:

Figure 2.  www.taskasap.com

This is just one example of how it's possible to web-enable an application and expand access to your existing application.  If you'd like to see more examples or explore how this might work with your application(s), please contact us.

 

Browser-based is only one option. 

What if you have a ton of business rules or need to interface with external applications?  At first glance, this might seem to rule out a browser-based application (that is, one that runs in Internet Explorer or Firefox).  But did you know it's possible to have the best of both worlds?  If a browser-based application wouldn't make sense, you might opt for a more user-friendly desktop application which fetches and posts data over the internet. 

The following screenshot shows an invoicing program we’ve developed.  All the data resides on a web server.  We fetch and post invoicing and timecard data to the server over the internet, rather than over a network connection. 

 

Figure 3.  invoicer.exe

All the data in the screen above is stored in Foxpro tables on a web server.  But since this is a desktop application, it allows us to print invoices to PDFs, email them and then post invoices into Quickbooks.  When it's time to save the invoice, the data posts up to the web server.  So even though this is a desktop application, it doesn't mean that the data has to be available locally.

 

Advantages

Web-enabling your Foxpro database offers several advantages.  It allows you to:

• continue using your existing system.
• take your data everywhere.  Anywhere you can access the internet, you can access your data.
• reduce deployment headaches.  With a web application, you deploy an upgrade in one location-not hundreds. Updates are performed on the web server, and become immediately available to anyone you've authorized access to your system.
• reach out and touch your customers.  Provide better customer service to your customers by granting them view-only access to their information.  In some cases, you can even provide order entry capability for your customers, and email a copy of their order to the appropriate people within your organization.

If you'd like more information about web-enabling your data, please contact us.