Web Connection
Web Connection Which way today ?
Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. Web Connection Which way today ?
  Julio Cesar Santone
  All
  Sep 17, 2017 @ 10:59pm

I have a typical business Fox Windows App and I still can't figure out which way I have to take this days to develop Web extensions with Web Connection

ASP.NET MVC or Angular ?

I know this is not an easy question but these platforms have been changing so much ( ASP.NET Core and Angular 4 for example ) that I'm really lost. Nowadays which would be the best option or at least which one has more future ?

Regards

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: Web Connection Which way today ?
  Rick Strahl
  Julio Cesar Santone
  Sep 18, 2017 @ 12:59pm

What are you intending to do exactly? If you want to use Web Connection you're not going to be using ASP.NET directly (only indirectly through the connector). Web Connection uses a classic ASP.NET and that won't change due to the COM Interop requirement to call Web Connection servers.

As to MVC vs. Angular (or other client framework):

If you're building a document centric solution (like this message board, or an online shop, or blog etc.) that contains mostly content that needs to be displayed or content that needs to be heavily indexed by search engines, using server side rendering via MVC (or otherwise) is usually the best approach.

OTOH, if you have an interactive application that deals with lots of data entry and dynamic data display, then a rich client application built with Angular, React, Vue etc. is usually a better choice.

In general I find that people have an easier time making the transition to rich client applications from desktop applications because the concepts are much more similar when it comes to building the UI. It's still HTML but the way you interact with controls and content is almost the same as it is in desktop applications. On the downside there's a lot more tech to understand and a lot more new tools to get used to as you need to work in JavaScript/Typescript, understand client side build tooling (node/npm/webpack). Most of this is automated these days, but it's still a learning curve and hurdle. You also need to build a client side and server side data service application, so there's some context switching happing. However, building the server side data service is usually the easiest part of that process (at least from the 'getting the data out' perspective)

For most business applications this means most likely the client side route is best as Enterprise applications tend to be heavy in data entry and data manipulation.

At the end it all depends on what you need to build and what you feel more comfortable with. Most applications can be built with either approach, but the above rules of thumb are usually your best starting point for making decisions.

+++ Rick ---

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: Web Connection Which way today ?
  Julio Cesar Santone
  Rick Strahl
  Sep 18, 2017 @ 01:23pm

Hi Rick,

I want to implement some web function to my existing Fox App using Web Connection, not migrate the entire app. As a result I also want a responsive/mobile look so maybe I'll go the rich client (Angular, Vue, etc.) way using WWWC for the backend through JSON REST Services

I really appreciate your recommendations and points of view.

Regards.

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: Web Connection Which way today ?
  Rick Strahl
  Julio Cesar Santone
  Sep 18, 2017 @ 06:57pm

The issues are the same as I described. Whether you're building a full app or a partial app with limited features for the Web the process is the same. You will end up a with a separate application that runs as a server and can serve requests as a server.

There are no simple answers here. You need to analyze your requirements and make a decision based on what you want to build, what you're willing to learn and what you like to work with.

+++ Rick ---

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: Web Connection Which way today ?
  Julio Cesar Santone
  Rick Strahl
  Sep 18, 2017 @ 06:59pm

Thanks Rick Regards

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