Linda, >I haven't done much web programming - everything I have done has been >desktop based. Now, I'd like my database desktop app on my clients' >machines to be able to check in with me for information and status >updates. > >How would I do that? I'm sure there are several ways and I'm >interested to know what methods you like.
The low level way to do this kind of thing is with IP socket programming. This approach involves a non-trivial amount of detail to accomplish what you describe. Take a look at the WinInet unit. This has call level routines for doing things like downloading a file from a URL. Your program could download a very small text file from your web server containing information needed to check for updates. When updates are determined to be available, the same URL download call can be used to download the updates. Very minimal learning curve to use this library. Glenn Lawler www.incodesystems.com
