Could someone get me pointed i the right direction?...

[DonRidley]

I have an existing application.  Its very simple. 

How do I go about having that app installed on several computers connected to each other through NetTalk.   Basically, when a user on computer 1 inserts a new record, I want all the other user's apps to be "refreshed" with the new data in their app.   All through the internet.   

I don't want web pages, I want separate Win32 apps.  Are we talking about NetSimple, NetAuto, or is this even possible.

Please forgive my ignorance as I'm am brand new at NetTalk.

Thanks,
Don

[Alan Telford]

Hi Don.
I believe this is called NetRefresh
I haven't used it myself.
Check out the Nettalk help for this object name.

[DonRidley]

Yeah, I read a little about NetRefresh and I understand the concept but how is the data itself distributed to all the applications?

Thanks,
Don

[DonRidley]

How about this..

Is it this simple?   Create a "server" version of my app.   Create x number of "Client" apps, connect them via TCP/IP and NetRefresh them from time to time?   Am I on the right track?

Don

[Rob Mikkelsen]

Don,

Yes, you are on the right track.  Personally, I would consider putting them on the web because then you only have ONE app to update, but it should work as separate Win32 client apps and one server app as long as they are on the same LAN because, I believe, NetRefresh is a NetAuto function which does not work over a WAN or internet.

Rob

[DonRidley]

I'm not dead set against using web pages but I was little taken back at the complexity of putting those pages together in Clarion.   I just have to get past the learning curve

Don

[Bruce]

Hi Don,

NetRefresh is designed for LAN's where you have multiple instances of a program sharing the same data files. All they need is a "hint" to refresh their browse since the underlying data file has been updated.

>> How do I go about having that app installed on several computers connected to each other through NetTalk.   Basically, when a user on computer 1 inserts a new record, I want all the other user's apps to be "refreshed" with the new data in their app.   All through the internet.   

I think what you're talking about here is _replicating_ the data between multiple copies of the data. ie each "site" has their own copy of the data, and when a change is made to 1 "site" it is propagated to the other sites. This is distinctly different to having _1_ set of data which is being shared by multiple apps.

To do replication you need a "Replication" tool. (For example Replicate).
http://www.capesoft.com/accessories/replicatesp.htm
This needs NetTalk to do the transporting, but the process of logging the changes, and then importing the logs into another app is handled by replicate.

Replicate has a learning curve all of it's own, because there neds to be a mechanism that identifies specific records, across all the data sets. It can be simple (data replicated in 1 direction) but if you allow changes on multiple sites at the same time, and you have auto-numbered keys etc, then things get complex. Manageable, but complex.

Cheers
Bruce

[DonRidley]

Thank you for your reply Bruce.   I had thought Replicate was only for upgrading apps across a network.  Hmmm...interesting possibilities.   I suppose using an SQL backend with NetTalk providing the "highway" would work.   I'm just concerned with speed. 

What I'm looking at in the long term are multiple laptop computers, each with a broadband wireless card, connected through a network (VPN, etc).  Still not sure if VPN technology has the horsepower to handle it though.   Each computer accessing the SQL backend (Which will be connected via FM3, thanks again Capesoft).

Thanks again.  I'm about to check out Replicate.

Don

[Bruce]

Hi Don,

>> I had thought Replicate was only for upgrading apps across a network.

No it doesn't do that at all. Fm3 updates apps across a LAN, as one of it's features. Safe Update (again using NetTalk as the transport) allows you to update your apps from the internet.

>> What I'm looking at in the long term are multiple laptop computers, each with a broadband wireless card, connected through a network (VPN, etc).  Still not sure if VPN technology has the horsepower to handle it though.

The SQL drivers can already access data on the internet. ie you can set it up so the SQL server is on a computer far far away. Of course this only works if the machine is online. As you say, it will be interesting to see if the connection is fast enough. Obviously it's not as fast as having the data local, but is a LOT less work to set up. If it's too slow you may prefer taking the leap to buid a web interface. Then the work is done on the server and only the "pages" go over the network.

Rolling out the web interface is much easier than rolling out replicated laptops, since you only have to worry about 1 machine (the server). On the other hand nothing will beat the raw performance of having the data local via replicate.

Cheers
Bruce


Cheers
Bruce


  Each computer accessing the SQL backend (Which will be connected via FM3, thanks again Capesoft).