Web-enabled FoxPro applications

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:

• Visual FoxPro 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.
   
• FoxPro 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.
   
• VFP 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.

Here's an example of one of our web-enabled VFP applications.  It reads and writes 100% of its data using Foxpro tables:
 

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.

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.

This is just one of the web-based applications we've developed using Foxpro both for storing data, as well as for generating HTML pages that are rendered by Internet Information Server.  Please visit www.iotechno.com and click on the online demo link to see this functionality.