Delphi application over the Internet

Question

Possible duplicate:
What web application platform for Delphi is recommended?

We have a Delphi 2007 desktop application that we host using Citrix. Now we want to get rid of Citrix and somehow use it on the Internet.

I did a little work and found that this is possible with uniGUI.

http://www.unigui.com

Conclusion: it can be done, but you will need to rewrite it, and only a subset of components is supported. Serious issues remain the monolithic structure of the application in the web environment.

There are two more options morfik and atozed , and they also require rewriting.

I want to know if there is another option that requires very little rewriting of work and how fragile is it?

Is anyone there to give me a helping hand, please.

Answer 1

Since there is no "silver bullet", it does not matter which product you use. You have the same problems with any of them. I would recommend spending a few days re-recording 2-3 typical screens on the Proof-of-Concept (PoC). Implement a POC for each “finalist” product and see how it works. Keep track of how much time it took for everyone, what was easier / harder, and how the end result appears for the end user (performance, good / funny appearance, reliability, “feeling”).

Regarding real rewriting, I would recommend the following:

• Re-factor an existing application for removing business logic from the user interface.
• Full regression testing and promotion in production.
• NOW go to one of the web tools.

Unfortunately, I did not take a step. Step 0: FREEZE all functions / fixes. If corrections are required for the current production, they will need to be made in a separate branch, and then executed in this project later.

Please note that this type of work is great for outsourcing, because the work is simple and the requirements are simple. Especially if it can be delivered one form at a time, so progress, deadlines and $$$ can be measured in small pieces.

Another preliminary step is to develop a cookbook for removing business logic from the existing level of the graphical user interface. It should define naming conventions, shared libraries (for code that should have been shared but not been), and should describe the conversion methodology.

Answer 2

How fragile it is, it is based on the quality of your code. If you have a good structured application, in which business logic and data access are completely separate from the graphical interface, it will be quite safe, although you still have to rewrite basically your entire graphical interface. If your forms have logic, and the code that speaks to the GUI components is intuitively linked to the code that validates your input and stores the data, then you have a big problem.

In this case, this is a great opportunity to reorganize large parts of your application and do it better this time.;)

Answer 3

AFAIK, there the tool will not convert your desktop application into a web application without requiring rewriting for most parts of the GUI.

as Golez said, you have to reorganize your application, try to separate your business logic from the graphical interface, then you can use some tools, such as Intraweb , to develop a GUI as a network and reuse existing business logic.

Another option: convert your application to n-tiers technology and deform your business logic into web services or any open technology and make your web part any web languages ​​like ASP.Net or PHP.