[louarnold]

I have a Windows Forms application written in C# for dotNet V4 that runs as an App on a desktop, using a local SQL Compact Edition database. I want to convert this to a web application that "runs" on a Linux system using MySQL.

I learned ASP.NET some 4 years ago, but haven't used it since, and I was hoping for something different to use - something more up-to-date, and preferably simpler. Suggestions are welcome.

I have never programmed in PHP, Javascript, or Ruby. (My last tutorial in Ruby on Rails gave me a severe headache).
Is Javascript the defacto standard these days?

[macosxnerd101]

ASP.NET isn't outdated. It is very much a live technology. PHP and ColdFusion are alternatives. So is Java EE, though not one I would recommend if you aren't very familiar with Java. Javascript is a client-side language, and does not have anywhere near the capabilities of PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, or Java EE.

[modi123_1]

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have a Windows Forms application written in C# for dotNet V4 that runs as an App on a desktop, using a local SQL Compact Edition database.

Curious question - why didn't you just write it as a desktop application?

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I want to convert this to a web application that "runs" on a Linux system using MySQL.

ASP.NET can utilize MYSQL. Just say'n.

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I learned ASP.NET some 4 years ago, but haven't used it since, and I was hoping for something different to use - something more up-to-date, and preferably simpler. Suggestions are welcome.

More up to date? You know the .NET framework has a 4.0 version only a year and a half out, right?

Define simpler. What does your webform do now?

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I have never programmed in PHP, Javascript, or Ruby. (My last tutorial in Ruby on Rails gave me a severe headache).

php, perl, html, html5, java, etc.. the list goes on.

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Is Javascript the defacto standard these days?

Standard for what? Controls? Mostly, yes.

[louarnold]

OK. These were all good questions. Let me reply:
I created the desktop App as a proof of concept. It was always going to be reconstructed as a web application. I just hadn't decided how. It is still incomplete, but it took so much effort to get the GUI this far that I should have developed it as a web application at the start. Note that it is not intended for use at an enterprise level, but rather for a small, say legal office.

The application generally does 3 things:
1) It massages records in a database so as to delete extraneous records, trim junk text leaving legitimate info, and calculate time differentials. This operates without a GUI - preferable with stored procedures that I don't have with SQL CE.
2) It presents a rather robust and complex GUI for creating and editing record filtering data. It would be useful if some of this data could be created by drag and drop of file folders on file servers.
3) It generates reports based on those options.

I guess my problem with ASP.Net, at the time of my course, was that it was pretty basic and yet difficult to implement.

This post has been edited by louarnold: 23 September 2011 - 09:04 AM

[Lemur]

macosxnerd101, on 23 September 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

Javascript is a client-side language, and does not have anywhere near the capabilities of PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, or Java EE.

...Node.JS? Admittedly a new technology but far far more efficient than apache and every bit as powerful as the major contenders. In my opinion it's more powerful.

Might be worth looking into but to be fair as said before it is new. This means it's still not 100% stable but enough to run things successfully.

[modi123_1]

Sorry for the tangent, but I am intrigued. How do you distribute the ASP files? Just email someone the .aspx pages and tell them to double click?

[louarnold]

Here is a forum article on a similar subject.
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/160077-aspnet-vs-php/"]
The security aspect is often forgotten.
Comments?

[louarnold]

Does using ASP.NET tie me to IIS? The plan was to use Apache. Will that not work?

modi123_1, on 23 September 2011 - 09:12 AM, said:

Sorry for the tangent, but I am intrigued. How do you distribute the ASP files? Just email someone the .aspx pages and tell them to double click?

I assume this is a joke, because I can't understand why you would pose the question otherwise.

[modi123_1]

louarnold, on 23 September 2011 - 03:22 PM, said:

Does using ASP.NET tie me to IIS? The plan was to use Apache. Will that not work?

Google found an old project that sort of did that.
http://sourceforge.n.../mod-aspdotnet/
http://www.apache-asp.org/

On the whole though - yes, IIS and ASP.NET go hand in hand.

louarnold, on 23 September 2011 - 03:22 PM, said:

modi123_1, on 23 September 2011 - 09:12 AM, said:

Sorry for the tangent, but I am intrigued. How do you distribute the ASP files? Just email someone the .aspx pages and tell them to double click?

I assume this is a joke, because I can't understand why you would pose the question otherwise.

No, oddly it was not a joke. I've seen fifteen year old "prototypes" being passed around on USB sticks and now acritical part of a businesses infrastructure. Webpages so far out of date they are not viewable, but a nest of mission critical Excel docs link to the pages and are crippled if you update the page. Internal facing webpages launched from silly batch files so the user's dont have to remember a link or use credentials. So yes, I was wondering how it was being transported and distributed.

[louarnold]

modi123_1, on 23 September 2011 - 01:38 PM, said:

No, oddly it was not a joke. I've seen fifteen year old "prototypes" being passed around on USB sticks and now acritical part of a businesses infrastructure. Webpages so far out of date they are not viewable, but a nest of mission critical Excel docs link to the pages and are crippled if you update the page. Internal facing webpages launched from silly batch files so the user's dont have to remember a link or use credentials. So yes, I was wondering how it was being transported and distributed.

haha...Its a new App. In a small office someone installs it, and someone else runs it via a web browser at an office desk. I hope that answers your question.

Re the server type. Some will use IIS, I assume, but most will use Linux-based server software. At their desks, they will use Windows based applications feeding data to the server. Any recommendation for this case, then?

[louarnold]

I have been reading. PHP will require alot of typing (html etc) and since I don't know of a good IDE this alternative doesn't seem helpful.

I also looked at Eclipse, Java and Tomcat as a development suit, but it looks like Java will require as much coding as ASP.NET.

Any other alternatives - simple, quick, etc?

[darek9576]

Programmers write CODE. Its your job. Thats what you get your money for.
Peace.

[louarnold]

darek9576, on 25 September 2011 - 01:47 PM, said:

Programmers write CODE. Its your job. Thats what you get your money for.
Peace.

That was a pretty obstinate reply. Do you get paid by the line of code?

[modi123_1]

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I have been reading. PHP will require alot of typing (html etc)

Sure, but once you get the database interaction down it shouldn't be bad.

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and since I don't know of a good IDE this alternative doesn't seem helpful.

I prefer the Eclipse with the PHP package.

There's also Microsoft's Web Matrix fun.
http://www.microsoft.../web/webmatrix/

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I also looked at Eclipse, Java and Tomcat as a development suit, but it looks like Java will require as much coding as ASP.NET.

That's very well possible.

[Atli]

louarnold, on 25 September 2011 - 08:42 PM, said:

I have been reading. PHP will require alot of typing (html etc) and since I don't know of a good IDE this alternative doesn't seem helpful.

Netbeans, PhpStorm, Eclipse PDT, Aptana, phpDesigner, PHPEdit... to name a few.

Whatever you choose, it will require a lot of coding, whether it's ASP.NET, PHP, ColdFusion, Java, Node.js, etc... And pretty much the only thing ALL of them have in common, and none of them can do without, is the "html etc" part. The trick isn't finding the fastest language, but the language you work fastest in.

If there was some magic drag-and-drop IDE that could "simply" build a complex web app in no time, many of us would be out of a job. (Which is perhaps why none of us have built it yet... )