Brad Marks
BradM at blackforestltd.com
Thu Jul 18 14:37:32 CDT 2013
Stuart, I am starting to understand the "Apple Deployment Process (use of iTunes, etc.) I have not yet worked in the Android world, but I am curious about the deployment process in this realm. Could you briefly describe how Basic4Android applications that you build are deployed on other Android devices? Thanks, Brad -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com on behalf of Stuart McLachlan Sent: Sun 7/14/2013 6:44 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Controlling an Access Reporting Application from aniPhone, iPad or iPod > 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 > > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- This message was scanned by ESVA and is believed to be clean. Click here to report this message as spam. http://h0stname/cgi-bin/learn-msg.cgi?id=645F628960.65458