Since you're making this a custom app, here's another
option that may be worth considering:
I wrote a relational database using the bash shell, and
used a web server to interface the database to multiple
users.
The application was an online mortgage application,
where potential borrowers apply on-line. Banks, also
use the web to enter data and update their database.
Feel free to demo it as a borrower here:
http://gtoft.dynip.com/owl
and as a lender here:
http://gtoft.dynip.com/owl/lender-main.html
And more information here:
http://gtoft.dynip.com/cgi-bin/owl/lender-server.sh
(Note: The labor hours quoted in the above link
include fully documenting the project, managing the
project's costs and resources, and training the
other members of the team in bash programming.)
This is completely written in bash. There is a
javascript calculator on one page. That's the
only non-bash code in the whole application.
The lender pages were hand-coded, and the borrower
information gathering pages were written using
MS FrontPage, then hand-edited to remove all the
trashy HTML (over 90% reduction in size).
The advantage of such a system is it will work
on any Linux server, and any Unix server (with a
few changes), and the clients can be any platform
with a browser. This allows you the flexibility
of keeping your Windows clients, and using a Linux
server.
Another advantage is that no compiler is necessary
for this application to work. I've recently found
that having a compiler on a server connected to the
Internet is a real bad thing (see
http://gtoft/dynip.com/worm).
The disadvantage of how I did it is that as the
database grows, it slows down tremendously. As a
rapid prototype, it works great, and proves algorithm
correctness. The final implemetation should use a
SQL database, however, we (the group of us that created
OWL) chose to use bash because our first SQL database's
response times really sucked.
Many Linux gurus are quite surprised that we pulled
this off totally in bash. Keep in mind, this application
is fully interactive, performs user error-checking,
performs many advanced database functions, and uses
dynamic HTML as output.
Even though perl, Java and Tcl support networking, I
prefer using CGI scripting for client-server applications
because of the flexibility in client operating systems,
and it totally relieves me of worrying about the client
side - I only have to focus on the server side of the
house.
So many options...
--
George Toft http://gtoft.dynip.com/LinuxAdvocate/
__ __ _ __ __ __ ___ ___
| | | | | \ | | | | | | \ \ / /
-o) | | | | | \_| | | | | | \ \/ / (o-
/\\ | |__ | | | | | |_| | / /\ \ //\
_\_v |_____||__| |__|\___| \_______| /__/ \__\ v_/_
Don't fear the penguins...
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