First thing I would suggest is to not look at it as 'converting' a vfp app to the web. You have been given new requirements - now you need to develop an application to handle that. I would suggest going to the customer and giving them the options of a terminal based approach or a web approach.

The terminal approach will require money for hardware and software for the users to access the existing application remotely. If security is a problem, this might be a better solution unless you are very familiar with asp and security (SSL, etc).

The asp/.net/coldfusion/westwind/etc approach will require that the client pay to have the exact same functionality in a web environment. Also included in that is more money for 1)shared hosting or 2)client hosting at their facility.

It's not your fault that the requirements changed... the customer asked for it. Tell them what it costs and move forward with the implementation. The client also needs to move forward with one solution or the other - unless they just want you to keep two systems going that do the same thing.

I would also let them know to double what they have spent so far for the 2nd approach because of the unknowns of web browsers, etc. You will have to do a LOT more testing on the web approach to ensure that the application works on different machines unless you supply hardware for each user that will hit the site.

-w-


>After a couple of months of development of a VFP 8.0 property management desktop application a client wants to make it a web application such that apartment managers can log in remotely. After spending a bit of time doing some research I have come up with the following five options for the client:
>
>option 1 - keep current system but have users log in via Pcanywhere, Gotomypc, Citrix or TS
>option 2 - run vfp form locally on each user's pc but have the data on a central server - OLEDB
>option 3 - convert and run both vfp form and data over internet using ACTIVE DOCUMENT and/or 3rd party software - westwind, voodoo, etc,
>option 4 - convert VFP application to ASP, Cold Fusion or other web site language and run form and data over internet
>option 5 - go with web based 3rd party property management software
>
>There are tradeoffs with each of these but the the hard party is coming up with cost estimates for some of these scenarios. I have much experience with VFP locally and have built web sites using ASP, Cold Fusion, etc. but have never ported a VFP application to the web. I'm looking for any advice from others who may have gone down this path. Lastly let me add that the current application only has about 8 forms and the client has spent less than $5,000 so far. Also if you have an option 6 or 7, I would love to hear them.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Vim