How to create VDF Web Applications
How to create VDF Web Applications page under construction
Introduction
The overall idea
ASP is about creating applications that work on the internet in a web browser. To create applications that work in a web browser, then you will need to generate HTML and use a web server (to use Visual DataFlex you will need IIS )
When you have decided to use ASP , then you should try to resist the urge to generate all the HTML from Visual DataFlex. The overall idea of ASP is to integrate your code into HTML in the most efficient manner (E.g. if you have a class called oHTMLWriter then something went wrong!)
The trick is to let your VDF code handle the data and business logic and let ASP handle the HTML presentation.
Getting started
To be able to develop ASP pages , then you need Internet Information Server. The most easy way to get that these days is to grab Microsofts Web Platform installer here :
http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx
This tool will provide you with a full stack for developing asp related things. It will also keep track of certain things you need to enable on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
You will also need to install Webapp server from the Portal:Visual DataFlex installer. Note that you will need version 14.1 to support the windows 2008 server.
Putting on your Thinking cap
Grab your Data Dictionaries from your old application and expose these using Web Objects .
- WBO
- Global.asa (this is where your code is stackup up. check the list of WBP's there)
In the trenches
Styling using css
Using css for styling can help you if you don't like doing design yourself! If you style using css then somebody else can do the design for you.
- start your adventure here: css
- go here when something goes wrong: quirksmode css
Javascript on the client
Javascript can be good for validating what the user enters on the screen. It can also be good for fancy AJAX techniques.
Validation
Here are some good links for validating :
- HTML ( validate here: [1] )
- Cascading Style Sheets ( validate here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ )
- Javascript ( validate here: http://www.jslint.com/ )
