[dba-VB] Goin' for the (browser based) gold

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed Mar 17 10:00:19 CDT 2010


It appears that ordinarily they get a list of zips directly from their client, in a CSV.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Gustav Brock wrote:
> Hi John
> 
> The big question is how the lead data get into the worksheet. Are they extracted/exported from somewhere or are they typed in manually?
> 
> If the latter, they could as well type data into a (web)form of yours. If you are not in the mood for creating your first web application, the simple method is to create a winform in a small Windows app which you leave running on a (virtual) machine for which you grant the client remote access. A splendid and free method for this is to use LogMeIn Free.
> 
> /gustav
> 
> 
>>>> jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com 17-03-2010 14:52 >>>
> As you guys know, I have started doing a lot of stuff in C#.  One specific client places orders with 
> me to provide him "counts of records where..." kind of thing.  To make a long story short, it is a 
> moderately complex process which I am automating using C#.  However what I would REALLY like to do 
> is to make it a process that they can do themselves.
> 
> My question to those who know more than I (translated "most everybody") how would i go about doing 
> something like this.
> 
> 1) The client is in NY.
> 2) The data is in my server in NC
> 3) The server is Windows 2003
> 4) SQL Server 2008
> 5) I have and am getting pretty comfortable with C#
> 6) I have moderately high internet speed, 12M down 1 meg up, but the new "burst mode" which 
> essentially doubles that for the first 30 seconds.
> 
> So...  What are my options?
> 
> 1) Make it a browser based widget that hits a web server here in my office.  I don't know how to 
> build a web app.
> 2) Make it a service based C# program that they have on their desktop but hits a data service on my 
> office.  I don't know how to do web services yet.
> 3) Something else that I am not thinking about yet.
> 
> At the moment the client sends me a spreadsheet of zips.  I do a machination, place the zips in a 
> directory, import into a database in SQL Server.  Maybe perform a minor edit to an existing view to 
> get the counts.  Open an email and paste the results back in, and send the email.
> 
> I have this process down from what used to take an hour or two back a year or so ago to about 15 or 
> 20 minutes today, but I still have to be in the loop.  My idea is to build a program that allows 
> them to do this themselves, log that it has happened and bill them $25 (or something) every time 
> they do a count.
> 
> Let them do it themselves making it faster for them, gets me out of the loop, drops my income a 
> little but I get paid for my computer instead of my time.  Gets me out of the loop is BIG!
> 



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