Appeon Web Application Navigation advice

[Former Member]

Hi All,

I am delving into my first system migration using Appeon this month. We have numerous systems all using the PFC framework combined with outlook/excel style menu and tabbed navigation, see screenshot below. The menu and navigation is implemented using a set of libraries we purchased from a French Company called Félix Informatique. (http://www.felix.fr/pb-components/flx-suite.html).

I am currently picking my way through the objects to try to get the Sidebar menu to load, but it is proving quite laborious as the only way I can trace through it is to pop up message boxes to find the code bottlenecks and deal with each issue individually. The Code Analyzer does not show any major roadblocks with the code, but it has problems loading.

Does anyone have any experience with these FLX objects and Appeon?

or

Does anybody have any other recommended objects/adding that they have used to provide a similar navigation experience?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Michael

[Former Member]

Michael,

do  you use the felix report writer as well ?  if so, does it work with appeon?

cheers,

mike

[Former Member]

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately we do not use felix report writer, so I cannot give you any indication about whether it will work or not.

Thanks for the advice on the Navigation.  I am thinking that I will try to substitute the w_main_frame from the appeon_code_samples demo as it provides a relatively simple treeview menu and mdi frame.

Thanks for the advice.

Michael

[Former Member]

Hi Michael;

  Neither Felix or PB Ultimate suite will work with Appeon as they use low Windows API calls to render their controls. Some of these API's are possible in the Web environment but most are not supported. Even if they were possible (even with some workarounds) the end result is often a web applications that leads to poor rendering or severe performance issues.  

  As far as Appeon Mobile is concerned - pursuing either of the above options would not be applicable what-so-ever.

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member]

Thanks Chris,

I wondered was I on a fruitless journey with this!!

Any thoughts on a decent alternative, or would you recommend creating our own navigation system?

Our main application menu is driven from a database table and access granted based on the user signon.

Thanks

[Former Member]

1) Yes, I created a "web" look and feel support for my framework based on the Canadian Government's CLF (Common Look & Feel - Web Standards for the Government of Canada - Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat) standards. This now allows anyone building a PB/Appeon web application to also build a comparable CLF standard web application using my framework. I did a presentation on this at the 2015 PB Conference in Charlotte, NC last May. However, this would only be good for new applications - not trying to do a quick & dirty webification of an existing PB application.

FYI ... (Actual Appeon Web application in production)

2) Yes, I would start to look at building your own navigation system as an alternative. I have seen so many "add-on" products go by the wayside since using PB v0.8 Beta in Nov 1989 it isn't funny. Between new PB releases, new O/S release, change in MS technology directions and now mutil-browser and mobile platforms. I personally think the key to longevity is to use standard PB Object classes to deliver a look & feel and/or behaviour that will last the test of time. For example, I still have quite a few Canadian Government PB Applications that used my framework where it emulated Tab Pages using User Objects before PB supported them natively. Now 20 years later, these PB application TP's are still working 100%.  

3) Driving the menu items from a DB is common practice and easy to do. The hard part is if you were doing this using Dynamic Menu Items vs the Hide/Show technique.

HTH

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member]

Thanks Chris,

I was at the conference in Charlotte and saw your presentations.  Myself and my colleagues were very impressed with your framework and its power for such a lightweight solution.  As a company we have already made the decision to use your Framework for any new developments we will pursue.  I believe one of my colleagues has also been in contact with you for assistance with Web Services, etc.

We also came to the conclusion that we would have to persist with the pfc framework for our existing apps as we would have to expend to much time and effort trying to get another framework to slot in!

I will have a look at creating an alternative navigation for our Web migrations.  I might take some inspiration from what you have done in your apps and framework.

Best,

Michael

[Former Member]

1) I agree ... refactoring from another framework would be huge work effort. The only reason to do that is a) when you are encountering a "dead end" product that you have to migrate off;  b) the long term gains significantly out weight the refactoring effort. or c) You need to do this in order to support multiple platforms (ie: native, web & mobile from one base code line).

2) I am also looking at building some advanced controls into my framework that use standard PB Classes. For example, in the Web Application I posted above you are looking at a web page totally rendered using User Objects and DataWindows. I hardly used one single standard class PB Control! For example, even the initial dual language welcome screen and its CommandButtons are all a DW object. The Navigation Tree in the 2nd screen shot is a Treeview DWO, etc.   

I'm glad you like the framework & my presentations! Were you the guys from the UK?

[Former Member]

Hi Chris,

We were over from Ireland, hoping to attend next year again if it is on.

We found the whole conference very informative.

Regards,

Michael

[Former Member]

Ahhhh ... OK - I remember you guys now (in a good way that is)!  

Yes, hopefully the conference will be running again in 2016.

FYI: 

[Former Member]

Hi Michael,

I use a combination of a datawindow and treeview objects for the menu navigation.  Since you already have everything in the database, you hopefully will be able to easily move to something similar.

I do wish now that I had not used treeview objects but rather simulated a treeview with a datawindow since datawindows provide a lot more flexibility.

Also, I provide my uses an option as to which navigation style to use.  If you are going to provide both appeon as well as client/server options then you could probably do something similar to that and allow your client/server users to use either the current nav or the new one you would be building.

[former_member185283]

We have a number of customers doing what Mike outlined but doing so using TreeView DataWindow, which Appeon supports.  This solution works great.

[former_member185283]

Menus driven by DB tables works well in on both Web and mobile.  We have many customers doing this.  We also have quite a few customers using Chris Pollach's framework.  His framework works on Web and mobile just as PFC works on Web and mobile.  But unless you are trying to port an existing desktop app to an iPad or Android tablet we recommend using a more compact framework than PFC for new mobile development.