10:54:07 AM
3M80ND8KU
FoxInCloud is not a development platform, but a set of classes and procedures that pure VFP mission is to deliver the forms and objects in VFP and reproduce theirs operations (methods, events, colors, etc. ..) in javascript / HTML / CSS using wConnect, scriptaculos, etc. ..
It is therefore not a structural framework. The sources of your applications remain fully VFP code and nothing else.
That is why it may seem at first disarming. FoxInCloud must provide fit and run any application written in VFP.
As everyone has their own classes, methods, procedures, framework, etc. .. FoxInCloud can not have user manual and a tutorial because every case is different.
Understanding what FoxInCloud does and how it does it, here is the key to success in adapting the code to work in VFP WEB.
It's an different approach than Alpha Five of Lianja / Recital who's have a framework logical.
Best regard
If you mean FoxIncloud as the alternative, you are right on many fronts. It uses VFP's great data driven object model and many of the other great things that to me are still cutting edge, after all these years.
You are also correct in that the documentation is non-existent, and therein lies the problem. Any commercial development platform worth trying has at least a well documented "hello world" tutorial, which gets your first simple app built and run. FiC has nothing to point a total newbie into the right direction, and I don't think tooltips or user forums are the right way to get someone through the first hurdles.
First impressions last. For me, if I cannot create a very, very simple 3-screen test app and get it to run with minimal effort, it is not worth my time. I am not "refusing" to be part of the newcomer group, I just can't be wasting my time trying to make something work without clear guidance on how to make it work. I even sent my source files to FiC for review, and they said it seems to work ok. However, I can see that on my side it does not work at all. After adaptation I get all kinds of error messages even when I try to open the adapted screen for editing with VFP, much less trying to run it on a web server. I am sure that with proper documentation I could set up my environment and run the adaptation without major problems and be off to the races finding what else I need to do in order to get my own bigger projects adapted.
Hi Pertti
You're right, Alpha Five is for you.
It seems to have ease of use consistent with your developer skills and so much more.
Now this is not strictly speaking a compiler / interpreter commands, forms, classes, etc. ..of VFP. So you'll have to rewrite almost all of your applications with the vagaries of bugs not yet mastered.
Y is there an alternative, less expensive in time and finance?
This solution already exists. I grant you it requires a bit of work sometimes without documentation but with a group of experienced users who help the newcomers from the moment they accept it and play the game.
I have a feeling that you refuse to be part of these newcomers for reasons not understood? this is not your case? I hope I'm wrong ..
Best regards
Yes I did, and yes I know.
There are more reasons than just JavaScript why I chose it, of course -- a system like Alpha Five is a full blown development framework that comes with a bunch of builders and common shortcuts, and using them sure beats reinventing a bunch of wheels and messing with the various idiosyncracies of hand coding large JavaScript projects, because they tend to become unwieldy and fragile very fast. I also like the extremely easy data connectivity and handling, which works well in LOB apps.
This particular framework ties the generated client code to its server back-end and, thus, the XBasic scripting language, which is not great but not horrible either. I'm not saying that this is the end all be all and I'm certainly not an evangelist for this framework. There sure are problems and weirdness, but for my purposes I simply couldn't find anything else that does mobile, desktop and web apps (theoretically) with one code base and in a device and OS- agnostic way (thanks to JavaScript for the latter, of course...)
That's why you settled for it??? You can do the same thing- "pure JavaScript and Ajax on the client" and run PURE Foxpro server-side scripting or compiled prgs.. You do know this right??? No need to settle for XBasic or the sorry VBScript at all ..
>"I finally settled on Alpha Five because it runs pure JavaScript and Ajax on the client, and its server-side XBasic scripting language is >pretty close to VFP. I'm not really crazy about XBasic because it seems a bit clunky in modern standards, but it gets the job done. >Alpha Five has its problems, too, but price/feature/maturity/familiarity/multi-platform-targeting -wise it seemed like the best choice for me."
