Web
Connection Features
Oh, so you're ready for the marketing
spiel? Well, believe it or not we really mean the following statements.
After all we make a living of using this stuff every day in addition to
selling it! For more detail on
any of this information please visit the Online
Documentation site, which includes the full Web Connection docs from our
help file. You can
find much more complete info expanding the blurps below. <s> --
Rick Strahl
Connect Visual FoxPro to the World Wide Web
with West Wind Web Connection and take full advantage of Visual FoxPro's
powerful data access and programmability for creating dynamically
generated Web content. Web Connection provides a scalable Web
platform for building fast, powerful and flexible applications with ease.
Take your pick between code based HTML creation or FoxPro based
HTML scripting, dynamic form rendering or PDF Report generation to
create your Web output. The supplied classes and tools greatly simplify
receiving Web server requests, using the provided information and generating
the final dynamic HTML and other data content such as XML or raw data to return
to the client. Tools abound to faciliate the output generation so you don't
have to do it all by hand - but the functionality is there to work at the
lowest level if you choose to do so.
Already doing Web development with
Active Server Pages? Find out for yourself why Web Connection provides much
better performance and scalability in addition to a much easier development
cycle that gets your app online in days not months. Compare ASP and Web
Connection side by side and judge for yourself - we guarantee Web Connection
is at least twice as fast than comparable ASP
code (script or VFP/VB COM) and it will scale better at higher loads! Web
Connection is ready for your Enterprise and e-Commerce needs now!
Take advantage of Web Connection's cutting
edge technology that leverages Microsoft Internet Information Server,
ISAPI, COM and of course Visual FoxPro for building high performance
Web backends that can handle large scale production loads. Web Connection
has been rigorously tested and deployed in a live environment on one of the busiest commercial online stores
at the time on the Web running as many as 2.5 million Web Connection Server hits per day
maxing out 3 full T1 lines. Web Connection has been tested in excess of 4
million backend hits a day on a single quad processor server. Although Web Connection works best with
Microsoft Internet Information Server it can run on any ISAPI or CGI
compliant Web server.
And Web Connection is ready for the next
wave, too: The Enterprise Edition features a COM/Automation object manager
that allows building VFP servers that can be scaled and at the same time
interface with other Microsoft Internet Technologies like Microsoft
Transaction Server. And unlike other tools from Microsoft, Web
Connection makes it easy to develop COM applications. Build and debug the
application interactively in the VFP IDE, then simply switch into COM
operation mode from a Web link and take advantage of COM performance,
scalability and administration without the development hassles of a pure COM
environment - get all the benefits of COM without the development and
administration pain. Compiled servers can run either as COM objects or as
standalones for testing and debugging.
And that's not all. Web Connection also
includes powerful support for distributed application development using XML,
SOAP and Web Services. Web Services are easy to create by simply creating a
class in a Web directory file. Web Services are dynamically compiled so you
can make changes without recompiling code and of course you can debug your
Web services against live hits. Powerful XML features for both client and
server sides are also included that allow you to persist data from into
cursors into XML, or .Net DataSets. Objects can also be persisted into XML
and back making short work of passing business logic between client and
server applications in a standardized hierarchical XML format. Whether
you're extending your existing Web applications with XML support or whether
you're building a full client server system using the Web and HTTP as the
network, Web Connection makes this job easy. Client tools include support
for a flexible HTTP client, a powerful SOAP client as well as a number of
support classes for sending and receiving Email (SMTP/POP3) and FTP file
transfers.
The opportunities of distributed
applications are endless and it's easy to build them with Web Connection. Check out our distributed
Web demos for ideas on how to use this powerful technology. (Some of these demos
require IE5 and VFP6/VFP7 installed on the client).
Web Connection includes close to 1000
topics of online documentation with a rich User
Guide that includes a number of Step By Step guides to take you through
various tasks. A complete class reference is also provided with many rich
examples and best practices notes. "The best documentation in the business", rave some of our
customers. There are also over 40 sample requests
that demonstrate the features of Web Connection as well as several demo
applications that put the pieces together in small full fledged applications.
The West Wind Message Board forum software is provided with full source
code, including the offline reader which demonstrates using a VFP client side
application sharing data with an online Web application.
Web Connection is a developer tool and
ships with full source code for the object oriented Web framework and all of
the support tools and sample. This is a fully open architecture that you as
the developer have control over - no hidden away black box code here! Use
the source to customize, learn and protect your investment into the future.
But don't take our word for it: You can
download
a fully functional shareware version to try for yourself. You may also want
to check out what some of our customers are saying
about Web Connection and check out some of the commercial
sites that are running Web Connection today.
Put the power of
Microsoft Visual FoxPro, ISAPI, COM and Microsoft Internet Information
Server to work for you today!
Features
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Support for ISAPI and CGI Web
Servers
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Support for Microsoft IIS & PWS,
Apache, WebSite, Netscape
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Automated setup for all Microsoft
Web Servers.
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Easy installation and full Web
Server configuration
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Easy to use
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Wizards help you create projects,
configure the Web server, create business objects and more
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Powerful Process class manages
Web request handling
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Everything you need is sent to
your handler methods.
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Focus on and write your
application not Web messaging logic!
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You create and work with a single
class simply adding methods or HTML template pages.
|
Interactive VFP Development against
real Web requests
·
Use the VFP debugger against live Web requests
·
Set breakpoints in your code
·
Errors in your code put you to the line of code in
question
·
Powerful error handlers handle application errors
smartly at development and deployment time.
·
Automatic error message display, error logging and
optional email notification. |
Powerful HTML/HTTP Response
class
·
Single method table and record rendering and editing
·
Data driven HTML form elements
·
Script HTML pages with ASP naming conventions/syntax,
but using VFP code
·
Use any HTML Editor and data bind fields to your HTML
forms
·
Render DHTML directly from Visual FoxPro forms in
Internet Explorer 4 or later
·
Print Fox reports to Adobe Acrobat documents to
display on the fly in a browser
·
Full access to the HTTP header for Cookies,
Authentication, Redirection and more
·
Uses ASP Response object naming conventions
·
Mix and match approaches for best performance and
ease of development |
Powerful HTTP Request class
-
Full access to all incoming HTTP
headers and server variables
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Simplified methods for easy
access and pre-parsed logical functional
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Retrieve form
variables directly back into business objects with
FormVarsToObject
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Uses ASP
Request object naming conventions
|
Distributed Application Support
(XML, Web Services, SOAP)
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Extensive XML features: Create
and import XML from cursors and objects
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Full support for Web Services,
SOAP and WSDL with easy Wizard driven interfaces
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Rich HTTP client side tools for
use in your VFP applications to retrieve Web content
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Remote HTTP data engine class –
call your Web application as a data server over the Web
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Aysnchronous Request Handler
class for long running Web requests
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Powerfull HTTP client class to
allow your VFP apps to retrieve and access Web content
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It's extremely easy to build
e-business communications applications
|
Client side tools for your VFP Fat
Client applications
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Powerful HTTP class for access
Web content and calling your XML and Web services
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SMTP and POP3 email classes
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FTP class
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TCP/IP Socket class for client
and server operation
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VFP based SOAP client
|
Light weight business object class
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Single class implementation with
only a handful of methods
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Easy to learn and get started
with (use is optional of course)
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Disconnected data paradigm
optimized for Web and e-Business applications
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Easy data persistence with
support of a number of XML persistance modes
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Easy data binding to object
properties and FormVarsToObject
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Support for object nesting and
aggregation
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Perfect fit for Web Connection
Web applications
|
Built in User Session Object makes
it easy to track users through a site
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Easy to use and extensible
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Table based – works with VFP or
SQL Server Tables
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Can work across multiple load
balanced machines
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UI and remote HTML based server
administration
·
View and clear logs, see server status and configure
servers
·
View, start and stop sessions
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Live online code updates without
taking servers down
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West Wind Web Monitor site
monitoring application
|
Deploy applications as COM
Objects for better performance
-
Faster operation using fewer CPU
resources
-
Simplified maintenance Mode
operations
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Live code updates without
shutting down the Web server
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Auto restart
of timed out or crashed server instances
|
Sample Applications
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West Wind Message Board – the
same application that runs on our Web site
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West Wind Photo Album
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Sample Applets: Guest Book, XML
based Guest Book, Developer Registry, plus over 30 specialized
function examples
|
Developer Features
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Full Visual FoxPro Source Code
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Extensible object oriented Visual
FoxPro Web application framework
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Most classes are built modular
and can be reused outside of Web Connection
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Complete documentation: Over 1000
help topics with user guide, class reference, examples, and
knowledgebase
-
Free support on our renowned
online message board with its knowledgeable developer community
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Product
|
Price |
West Wind Web Connection |
$399.00 |
Limited Runtime Distribution
License (50 Server Installations) |
$699.00 |
Unlimited Runtime Distribution
License |
$1399.00 |
Shipping Options
|
|
Send CD or invoice
|
$10.00 |
Send CD or Invoice
Foreign (outside of US or Canada) * |
$20.00 |
Email notification
and FTP download |
FREE |
Support Options
|
|
Online Support on
Message Board http://www.west-wind.com/wwthreads/
All questions directly related to Web Connection
are answered within 24 hours. |
FREE |
Priority phone or
email support (½ hour increments billed via credit card) |
$150.00/hr |
* All products are
delivered electronically only. No printed materials are provided – all
documentation is provided in Word format.