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

One way to do this is with web services. I have a client who wants to keep
order data on a local access database, but also has a web order entry system
that I built in ASP.NET. The ASP.NET site uses a SQL server database. I keep
them in synch with web services. Works well. 

A more .NET type approach would be to use the entity framework and Windows
Communcation Foundation. It looked really attractive for the project I
mentioned but we originally started with a version of SQL Server that wasn't
supported. Don't remember much about it except that it would have been
easier to build.

I don't understand the theory behind a lot of the .NET stuff but it does
seem to work as advertised.

Doug 

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 6:53 AM
To: VBA
Subject: [dba-VB] Goin' for the (browser based) gold

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!

--
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com
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