[AccessD] Fun and games in web design

Hi John:

Comparing a large browser based internet site and comparing a relatively
small custom built site is not a true comparison.

A site like Lowes, for example, may have 5000 plus customers at any one
moment or be able to sustain 50K hits 24x7. Sites like these cater to the
lowest denominator. The lowest denominator is browser dependant and that
would mean that a user may be using an IE browser (shudder) and have their
JavaScript turned off (the fear originated from some IE error dating back to
the late nineties and now it is can be described as a mythic superstition).

The advances in the web, unlike a standard company product say like Access,
is not limping along, with feature being dumped or morphed irrespective of
its developer and users...growth and development in this field is explosive.
What ever feature is not available now...just wait a few days. Once you are
comfortable working in this area your opportunities will never diminish.
This is the field where probably 90 percent of all the new programming jobs
are and will be.

Below is a link to piece of code I put together over seven years ago,
ancient by today's standards. It is running on a very old and flakey server,
which is over 10 years old, single core, 1 GB RAM, with a modest home
business ISP connection. When I say piece of code, it means that it is not
completed as I worked on it in my spare time until someone hired me to
program seriously. One day I will complete it and add all the new feature
but not today. So after a long series of excuses, here is the link:

www.creativesystemdesigns.com/projects/programming.asp

I could link you to much better code but that is in private client Intranet
sites with their own VPNs. Today the above code would be a 2 or 3 hour
trifle but I think you can see some of the potential given that the data is
acquired and displayed in real time and the application can run anywhere in
the world irrespective of client or location. No more modification on a
client's station; code it once and its done. It is an easy way to do a small
client site of say a hundred users. You can put any DB you want MDB, MS SQL
xx, MySQL, Postgres, any NoSQL SQL DB etc. Any middle tier language,
JavaScript, ASP, ASP.Net, RoR, Python, PHP, Java etc. The sample above uses
a MS SQL 2005 server with a very old version of ASP.

Jim 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 7:47 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Fun and games in web design

I hope and pray that the HTML5 thing does what it promises.  However I have
to tell you that to this 
point I have not seen anything approaching a real database *anywhere* on the
web that didn't 
positively suck to use.

My call center app, at the client's request has about 14 tabs.  The client
looks up a claim and 
opens this form and has access to each and every part of the claim just by
clicking on the 
appropriate tab.  They love it.

Maybe it is just me but I cannot see that happening in a browser.  First of
all there is crosstalk 
between subforms, pulling data from one part of the claim to allow / prevent
other parts from doing 
things etc.

Anyway, let me just say "I'll believe it if I ever see it."  In the
meantime, I have browsed a baout 
a bajillion web sites and they pretty much all suck.  Which doesn't mean
they don't work, just that 
they suck to try and manuever around.  Just try to find anything in Lowes
builder for example.  Holy 
cow.  Ask for lumber and get about 16 thousand hits for everything from
nails to boards to wire to 
... With silly circular sub menus off to the side which are supposed to get
me closer to what I want.

Amazon is the same way.  Ask for anything, ANYTHING and watch what you get,
from baby crap to books 
to dvds.

No idea how they decide what to return but it is not easy or intuitive.

And I have to say, most banks terminals look like they are legacy systems
from the 70s.  And 
probably are!  ;)  It may play well over the web but that doesn't make it
cool or easy to use.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it