You're right that any web-based application is plagued by various latency problems. But, for whatever reason, Tom did say he wants a browser-based solution. One way to partly resolve this would be to run the app off of a beefed-up local server on your own local subnet. That would address some of the speed and reliability issues that most web apps have -- all traffic would be local rather than through the internet. Google Gears is another attempt to address the inherent problems in web apps, but I don't know if there are any good application development frameworks out for it yet. Maybe Tom could elaborate on why he wants his data-entry to be browser based. On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 11:31 AM, Alan Palazzolo <me at alanpalazzolo.com>wrote: > Curtis and Tom, > > Curits, you know how I love the Drupal, but I don't think Drupal is a > good solution for this problem. > > One, using a browser-based solution could be an overall problem because > theres always a chance of unreliability, slowness, internet > connectivity. Also, Drupal has a lot of overhead. And Drupal does not > have good, stable support for Google Gears. So, unless you need actual > website with content (besides data entry), Drupal is probably not the > answer. Don't get me wrong, Drupal is great and can accomplish this, > but I don't see it as the best solution. > > But, I'm not entirely sure of the scope of project. Do you need > anything besides data entry? Security issues? Design aspects? LAN or > WAN support (this could remove the browser/internet problems)? Needless > to say, I don't have any real solutions that I can think of. > > > -- > Alan > http://alanpalazzolo.com/ > > > > > On 9/11/08 11:13 AM, Curtis Griesel wrote: > > If you want your application to be > > - browser-based > > - standards-compliant -- works on most computer browsers / platforms > > - easy to configure > > - secure -- easy to patch and upgrade on an ongoing basis > > - modular -- start with core features and easily integrate new features > in > > the future > > > > I would look at building it in Drupal. > > > > True, there is a learning curve involved to actually do the development, > but > > it is PHP so not at all hard for an existing software developer to grasp. > > Plus, there is a large and active Drupal community so you can easily get > > free help, or even hire a local Drupal developer to do the work for you > if > > you don't want to be bothered. > > > > Curtis > > > > On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 10:51 AM, Tom Penney <tpenney at gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> Forgive the off topic post. I was hoping that someone might have some > >> advice for me. > >> > >> I've been handed a home brew data entry system written in VB6 that is > >> in need of replacement. Code is poorly commented and the guy who wrote > >> it can't be found. What I would LIKE to do is start from scratch and > >> write a nice browser based system using google gears or something like > >> that but I don't have time. I would think there would be a ton of > >> stuff available, open or otherwise, as we are not doing anything > >> unusual. But what I've found seems antiquated and expensive. I was > >> asked to evaluate some Viking Software stuff which has the features > >> that we need but, man, low tech, 8 character file names, keyboard > >> overlays required, etc. > >> > >> We process about 10,000 hand written forms a month entered from > >> scanned images on screen. Each form is entered twice by separate > >> people and compared for accuracy. some fields are looked up in a > >> table to auto populate other fields which can then be accepted or > >> edited. nothing to fancy. Has anyone here run across anything I should > >> be looking into? > >> > >> -- > >> Tom Penney > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org > >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > >> > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20080911/f192b296/attachment.htm