Hi Metin and Thierry,

To add a perspective to Thierry's use of the terms application, we found (at my day job) that even before the smartphone revolution, we were moving toward simple forms with hyperlinks for extended functions, in VFP. It was less confusing for our users. Furthermore, we discovered that making less of the app available to specific users was better for the users and for our Support staff.

Meanwhile, in the same timeframe, web pages transformed into applications, like the UT itself and like my bank's web site. By any other name, those are apps. And when used on the phone, all the functionality is there, but in a different format. Lianja has the ability to "alias" any page for a specific page designed for tablet and/or phone. Some pages will rearrange themselves as needed, and for others an aliased page designed for that format is desirable. Lianja gives the developer a choice. For desktop, of course, this isn't an issue.

So, separating an app into its component parts, making some available to all users, etc., is where the world has gone, and also what works best for our users. Since this is how Lianja is structured, including roles relating to application component access, this fits our needs. I can't speak for anyone else.

We also didn't want to lose all of our processing code, which is already broken down into areas of functionality. Writing code to handle areas of functionality is just sensible programming, regardless of the style of application. In Lianja, where we are building everything for the cloud, we can, and do, make direct calls to VFP code running on the server, no extra programming required. This allows the complex data stuff to be written in the language best-suited for handling data, VFP so far as I'm concerned, whether writing for desktop or cloud.

All that said, your conversion to FIC would certainly be more direct than with Lianja. You could even keep the present perspective on Application that you have in your existing app.

I'm not sure of your cost, since the link Thierry provided didn't go beyond 10 connections (users) at a time. Since you are only doing desktop, there would be no cost for deployment in Lianja.

Thierry mentioned builders that generate sections as an area of difference. That has nothing to do with the style of application. They are like the VFP builders, and the builders that come with the various VFP frameworks. They are productivity enhancers, not more or less. The hooks are there to create one's own builders, also, if desired. Everything in Lianja is an object, accessible as such.

Good luck, and I'm glad I don't have to make your decision. In the markets for my day job and my own business (small cloud apps for small/medium businesses), I saw no commercial alternative to being able to deploy on Cloud for web, tablet and phone. With the arrival of Electron (push a few buttons in Lianja and your cloud app is generated as an Electron app), I no longer had a need for desktop deployment in order to access local devices. So switching to a development platform that is organized around where I needed to be commercially made sense.

If I saw commercial success on desktop where I am in the market, as you do, the decision would have been much more difficult. My other factor was the likelihood I will be working for another 10 years, because I enjoy what I do and am able to do it, both of which would be so even if I didn't have a reason to earn a living. Relying on VFP as the linchpin for my living for another 10 years struck me as a risk. And I am very grateful it still works, quite well, in our legacy app.

What we are doing now is adding "small apps" to our legacy product, hitting the same (MSSQL) database (much easier than VFP, actually). These generate additional income while allowing us to incrementally move the entire "application" over. Our experience in doing so then feeds back to Lianja. Their responsiveness to developer needs is on a par with Fox, before it joined the Borg. Either way you're good in this department, because Thierry has done incredible work also in meeting developer needs. I don't think you can lose either way. It all depends on your current and future needs in your business and personal context.

best,

Hank

>'generated' and 'wizards' are keywords here.
>
>Like most current solutions, Lianja is technology-centric: the application has several avatars depending on the operating environment: desktop, web, mobile, etc.
>
>FoxInCloud is application-centric: it considers the application as intangible and suits layers of technology around to adapt it to varying operating conditions; in other words, you have one single app that you can deploy over a variety of operating environment -- already written, run everywhere.
>
>This positioning is based on a business and strategic standpoint: Since the early 80's, companies have heavily invested in building business applications: spec, coding, training, bug fix, conflicts with users to get things done, etc. This work is an asset that many and most companies can't just write off each time a new technology arises (eg. the Web).
>
>Technology driven solutions always get out of control: technologists can always find a 'better' way to do the same job, and teach everyone that it's the 'best way'; examples of this mindset can be found in almost every thread of this forum, and in the succession of Web stacks: how many devs care about LAMP today compared to 5 years ago?
>
>I'm not saying (and never will) that this approach is better than the others; I just try to invite readers to think about the path they want to follow, and FULLY estimate how much it'll cost their company and users (in time mainly, licenses are negligible compared to work force).
>
>>Hi Metin,
>>
>>Lianja on the desktop (network) is license-free, as it does not run on the cloud server.
>>
>>The "forms" on the desktop version are part QT and part HTML.
>>
>>The cloud version of these forms (automatically generated from the desktop version) are all HTML.
>>
>>With the cloud server (about $1200 per server; but an ISV can buy unlimited licenses for a yearly fee) you can deploy Electron apps on the desktop, or serve up a web app in a browser or deploy to PhoneGap (at the push of a button, essentially) for Tablet and Phone.
>>
>>There's a learning curve, to be sure, but that is being eased greatly as the versions progress. The current beta version contains builders for all the major elements of an application.
>>
>>Hank