[AccessD] Controlling an Access Reporting Application from an iPhone, iPad or iPod

Stuart McLachlan stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Sun Jul 14 06:44:42 CDT 2013


> I am curious if anyone else has looked into this realm of bridging the gap between the 
> world of iPads/iPhones and the Windows realm.  

iDevice - no, Android yes.

Using Basic4Android for the  tablet applications
PowerBasic or a Web Server for the Listener 
Access / SQL Server / MySQL for the BE,
PowerBasic / PHP / Access for the report generation or whatever.

For listeners, I've used different appraochs
(a). data is sent from the device as an email request to a dedicated address and the Listener 
periodically POPs and parses any waiting emails 
(b) data is sent to an IP address where a "real" listener monitors a port and parses the data 
packet sent to it.
(c)  WAMP running on a server and the device sends HTTP requests to a PHP page.

I haven't tried it with FTP, but that would be as good a way as my email method  if your don't 
need an instant response.
. 
-- 
Stuart

On 14 Jul 2013 at 6:04, Brad Marks wrote:

> All,
> 
> I have started to do a fun little R&D project and I would like to
> share my ideas (and solicit your feedback). 
> 
> Background - 
> 
> I work for a small manufacturing firm (50 employees) with a very
> limited IT budget.  I have used Access 2007 to build a series of
> "Report Jobs" that are automatically run every night.  The generated
> reports are e-mailed to key employees every night as PDF files.  These
> employees can view the reports on their home PCs, but most of them
> like to view the reports on their iPads or iPhones.  This works
> nicely. 
> 
> Recently, there was some discussion about actually "running" the
> Access reports on an iPad.  I explained that this was not possible,
> but it might be possible to "Control" Access report jobs on the
> Windows Server from an iPad or iPhone. 
> 
> Here is the approach that I have started to experiment with.  
> 
> 
> The iPad Side -
> 
> I recently purchased an iPad product called TechBasic.  It sells for
> $15.00 on iTunes.  It is for application development and testing. 
> However, to deploy an app to other devices requires a second $50
> product called TechBasic App Builder. 
> 
> TechBasic is a flavor of Basic that is geared to the scientific
> community.  It has many easy-to-use GUI objects.  With a small amount
> of work, I have built a test application that runs on the iPad.  This
> application uses a GUI object to collect a small amount of what I call
> "Report Control Info".  (Example - Run Sales Order Report-100 for
> Midwest Division).  This small amount of control info is uploaded to a
> server via FTP commands in the TechBasic app. 
> 
> 
> The Windows Side -
> 
> One the Windows Side, I have built a small "Listener" program that is
> set up to run every 5 minutes.  (This time interval could be less if
> needed).  The Listener program simply obtains the "Report Control
> Info" via an FTP "Get".  The Listener program uses the info that it
> obtains to initiate the generation of the appropriate Access report
> with any uploaded oereport paramete?s.  Onc? the report is generated,
> it is automatically e-mailed to the requester as a PDF file. 
> 
> Admittedly, this is a somewhat crude and simplistic approach, but I
> believe that it will be a useful tool for our users.  In addition,
> there is very little investment in this approach.  The reports are not
> returned "immediately", but I don´t believe that this is going to be a
> problem as they will be returned in a few mintues. 
> 
> Previously, I experimented with several "Remote Desktop" type products
> that run on the iPad.  I had some success but I believe that this
> approach would be too complicated for our end users.   
> 
> I am curious if anyone else has looked into this realm of bridging the
> gap between the world of iPads/iPhones and the Windows realm.  
> 
> Again, this is sort of a fun little R&D "Hobby" project and I am open
> to suggestions, alternative ideas, etc. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Brad           
> 
> 





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