Hi Mike, Given the progression of all things computer, it's fairly easy to imagine gigabit and better communication speeds across the globe before too long, in which case the Internet latency / index suck problems become less an issue. But given today's environment and fairly large database tables, it looks like a server side DBMS such as MySQL is called for.
To deal with this, I've added MySQL databases to my app with a switch that the installation can use to choose between the MySQL or local / LAN server DBF tables (some tables are always local DBFs). The MySQL option is reserved for internal use for testing and further dev. This is a pretty major product change and I'm not rushing it into production. Other Internet related services such as sending email and text messages, jumping to URL's and installing maintenance are tested and in production. It's the remote database part that I'm going slowly with. It seems clear, with smartphones and tablets still gaining popularity, that we should proceed on the premise that the long term trend with users is to want/need to access their data from anywhere, and security and other Internet issues aside, it's our job to make that happen. But I don't think the story ends there. Maybe it's just me, but I believe the program should be able to operate without the Internet, because it's existence and 24x7 availability is not guaranteed. This calls for frequent backups of the MySQL tables, but that's a good thing anyway. Frankly, I do have misgivings with MySQL. I'd much rather head into the IBM direction fold for the future, and not just for relational databases, but imagine having an interface with Watson! Bill _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
