Porting Access applications to the web. ASP or PHP?

[msch-prv]

I hope this is the right forum to ask for some advice.

I run a small business which relies on a variety of custom database
applications to handle operations (order processing, inventory
tracking, customer databases, etc. ). Our applications are custom made
and work fine on our local intranet. They can be easily adapted to cope
with changing business conditions.

My goal is to port some of those custom databases to the web (tele
working). An essential criterion is that the web application preserves
as much as possible the look and feel of our current UI (I expect some
of our employees to be working from home). The application should be
hosted on an remote server.

I migrated all back end table to MySQL without any major difficulties
to my great surprise. (Access works fine with ODBC!)

The real problem seems to be the scripting part. I have looked at PHP
and test coded some scripts to get a feel for the work that would
required. Experimenting with PHP has led me to the conclusion that
preserving our current UI would be a massive undertaking. (No tools,
aside from some PEAR modules, seem to exist for rapidly creating
standard form elements like DS views, combos, etc. )

My question is: Since the db are MS Access based, would ASP be a better
venue? Does it natively support standard form elements such as those
commonly found in Access (lists, combo boxes, treeviews,..) ? Data
pages hold interesting promises. Can they be easily embedded in an
existing site? Before embarking on the ASP journey, I am interested to
get some feedback. The fori I consulted seem to favor PHP. Is this mere
MS bashing or does it conceal some truth? References and/or tutorials
are welcome.

Thanks for your comments.

Mark

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Forget about ASP and PHP and go straight for ASP.NET 2.0. ASP and PHP are
(very) old technologies that shouldn't be used anymore for any new
development. Also, it won't hurt if you buy some external tools for the
client side like those offered by DevXpress, Infragistic, Janus, FarPoint or
ComponentOne to complement the controls offered by ASP.NET 2.0.

However and because in your case you only want to make tele working, a
possible good solution would be to use your current applications over a
RemoteDesktop or TS/Citrix.

Another possibility would be to develop your application with WinForms and
communicate directly over the Internet with the backend sql server (MySQL or
MS SQL-Server).

Finally, for your question about Data Access Pages (DAP), they are without a
doubt the worst choice of all: very, very easy to start with but you will
rapidly feel the pain when you will have to do anything else than a very
simple task.

 

[Albert D.Kallal]

I migrated all back end table to MySQL without any major difficulties

to my great surprise. (Access works fine with ODBC!)

My question is: Since the db are MS Access based, would ASP be a better
venue?

You just told me that you dumped ms-access, and moved the data to mysql.

Using PHP with ms-access database, or mysql database makes no difference.

Remember, ms-access can connect to any database, and thus ms-access is more
of a development tool then the actual database.

PHP, or ASP can also connect to any database. So, really, you are not
building the application with ms-access anymore the instant you go web
based.

If you just need some applications to be used by tele-commute employees, it
makes no sense at all to re-write these applications as web based, but
simply you can deploy them for remote use by adopting Terminal Services.

I am interested to
get some feedback. The fori I consulted seem to favor PHP. Is this mere
MS bashing or does it conceal some truth?

It conceals nothing. If you decide to build a interface to a oracle
database, or a mysql database, you can use ms-access, or you can use a web
system + PHP. This is not really a database question anymore.

If you want a nice rich "forms" like development system for the web, then I
have to go with the other posters comments (Sylvain). Go with the new
asp.net, as it is full development system, and is similar in nature to
building applications with ms-access, except you are building a web based
system.

I see NO reason to deploy your applications as web based for just a few
employees to work at home. In that case, I would use remote technology, and
that would get you decent performance, and you could continue to
use/maintain/develop your existing application as is.

I talk about using ms-access remote here:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal//Wan/Wans.html

 

[msch-prv]

Thanks to both of you for the interesting feedback. I'll check
Sylvain's references.

To answer Albert's comment: Some of the db's are quite data sensitive
and will not be deployed on the web. Our objective is to keep on using
Access (as a client) on our local intranet but provide added
functionalities to tele commuters. I realize that sharing various db's
will potentially raise synchronization problems. At present, however,
we do not plan on hosting a proprietary web server on our premises.

Mark

 

[msch-prv]

I forgot to mention another couple of reasons for migrating BE tables
to MySQL:

1. We use a wireless LAN subject to erratic disconnects and are
concerned about potential db corruption problems. MySQL seems to be
more robust in that regard.
2. If remote access as explained above works ok, we might decide to
provide additional on-line services for our clients as well. Gaining
some experience in using remote db's will probably help us in assessing
the pros/cons of such an environment.

Mark