Disclaimer: FoxInCloud is a commercial product that I'm heavily involved in.

>For existing Fox apps I always point to FoxinCloud
+1
;-)


>but more as an conversion path, not as a stack to keep for long stretches - perhaps selling FIC short, as I looked only briefly at it a few years ago and have not been tasked with handling maintainance on an app so enabled ;-)

FoxInCloud ADAPTS an existing VFP application to the Web by turning the app GUI into a HTML-CSS-JS layer deferring most user events to the server using AJAX and the original app VFP code. I insist on ADAPT because an adapted app. runs on the desktop just like usual, and on the Web, with the exact same features. In fact the same adapted code base works on either desktop or Web.

By default the GUI clones the VFP app forms, but is not limited to that design: developer can add custom rendering:
- globally, through an application-wide CSS
- at the class or object level, by implementing the .wcHTMLgen() method to custom HTML/CSS and/or JavaScript to the layout.

As FoxInCloud bases HTML IDs and classes on the VFP classes and object names, adding such custom HTML/CSS/JS is very easy and meaningful, especially when defined right in the class or object VFP code (Adding a Google Map to a FoxInCloud Form illustrates this process quite well).

As soon as the new version of jQueryMobile will be released, we'll setup an option to automatically map (simple) VFP forms into mobile-aware GUI (so far developer need to shape forms to the mobile format).


>Spurred by a performance question in JS I recently cross-read a lot of John Resigs older blogs. He also has
>
>http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-language-abstractions/
>
>which is about GWT and Pyjamas, which do such conversions as FoxInCloud and Ricks early early implementation give you.
>I have done a few apps using Java + GWT in the tool chain, and the feeling of trying to do precision work while gloved (not surgical gloves, but ski mittens) was there ;-)
>
>While Resig somewhat overshoots in the part praising the melting pot expirience of JS - I have played with Jython in Java and Ironpython in C# code, and in the Java GWT apps some of the front-end validation code in JS was used again on the backend running Rhino-Javascript on the backend - his description of being (too far?) removed of JS is not too far off the mark. With Hank I looked into Pyamas (years ago) for something along lines NW.js or Electron deliver now - did not work out, as there were too many problems with Pyjamas (and the small dev crew, leading dev in particular). Today full stack JS stacks reaching down to Node.JS seem better balanced to me, although I still prefer SQL/C based repositories over more JS like types like Mongo or CouchDB ;-))
>
>For existing Fox apps I always point to FoxinCloud, but more as an conversion path, not as a stack to keep for long stretches - perhaps selling FIC short, as I looked only briefly at it a few years ago and have not been tasked with handling maintainance on an app so enabled ;-)
>
>
>>That's true. But I was wondering if tools like west wind and the other one (the ones that convert fox to the web) could be used in GitHub's Electron? In case you don't know what Electron is all abouit - it's way to use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Chrome as the tools to create desktop apps. It uses NodeJS too. I mean a normal Desktop that has access to the file system and all the other things that Desktop programs can do. So far everything I've tried has worked that includes web frameworks such as react and ember - all were converted to desktop apps. I'm taking 'exe's. It's looks very cool so far - it's cross platform. When I say cross platform I mean Apple, Windows, and Linux - but I also watched a video where Electron was used as the bases of a mobile app.
>>
>>I have always been jealous of CSS. CSS allows the programmer to design UI's that I have always wanted on my screens. And practical pizzazz always pays off.
>>
>>Anyway, I've just started looking at Electron and I don't the negative yet! I know the GitHub people put out a very good editor - Atom. - using Electron.
>>
>>Here's a short you tube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojX5yz35v4M
>>
>>This is a little off topic but it seemed to me that we are all trying to get our old VFP programs to live a longer life and Electron might be one other solution.
>>
>>Johnf

ojX5yz35v4M