Report / Printing manager for the web

[Michael Check]

We have several sites with A4D and various frameworks like Ext.  We
need to incorporate a Printing/Report manager for generating onscreen
reports and csv exports.  Anyone with experience or knowledge of such
a product?  Something like Crystal Reports (but not as extensive), but
open source would be spectacular.  We could feed it data via json, xml
or even ODBC from A4D and the db.

Thanks,

Michael Check
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[Randy Engle]

Hello Active4Ders

I'm just beginning to take a look at Active4D, hoping to use it to quickly
build a robust web interface that we will offer to our vertical market
customers.

I've used 4D to create a fairly simple interactive (data entry) web site,
but I'm needing a lot more.

Besides the Active4D demo, can anyone suggest other resources to begin to
learn and use Active4D.

Gracious thanks,

Randy Engle, Director
XC2 Software, LLC
mailto: randy.engle@...



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[String]

The demo, the manual, this forum and occasionally the overall 4D forum  
are the tools I use, in that order.

I often leave the demo open to observe it in action.

The manual needs to be referred to over and over. It is full of key  
pieces of information, not too much fluff, and often reveals things  
after you have gained some experience.

I would also suggest that you not be afraid to ask newbie questions, I  
was (pride, insecurity, whatever :-(  ) and wasted a bunch of time. As  
a result I personally am willing to try and answer those questions.

Are you considering Fusebox or Ajax? There are more resources specific  
to those technologies, and great support for them in A4D by the way.

Good Luck!

String Hamister
Interface Artistry


On May 9, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Randy Engle wrote:

> Hello Active4Ders
>
> I'm just beginning to take a look at Active4D, hoping to use it to  
> quickly
> build a robust web interface that we will offer to our vertical market
> customers.
>
> I've used 4D to create a fairly simple interactive (data entry) web  
> site,
> but I'm needing a lot more.
>
> Besides the Active4D demo, can anyone suggest other resources to  
> begin to
> learn and use Active4D.
>
> Gracious thanks,
>
> Randy Engle, Director
> XC2 Software, LLC
> mailto: randy.engle@...
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Active4D-dev mailing list
> Active4D-dev@...
> http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/mailman/listinfo/active4d-dev
> Archives: http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/archive/active4d-dev/

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[B. Perkins]

Randy,

Welcome.

I'm not aware of any other demos, but would strongly recommend reading the
manual. Active4D's language extends 4D's in many ways that make web
programming easier. Some of these extensions have been inspired by other
languages and their usage is non-4D like, but they are very powerful.
Active4D also extends many existing 4D commands. Learn to leverage the
enhancements. There are dozens of String function enhancements.

One example of a language extension are Active4D Collections. In other
languages these are known as associative arrays, hashes, maps or
dictionaries. You can think of these as arrays with named indexes, but
they are more than that. Using Collections is fundamental to Active4D
programming. I really wish 4D had collections.

Familiarize yourself with the Active4D libraries that are supplied in the
Active4D folder. These contain many useful utilities that you'll find
yourself using and are useful learning examples.

Other cool features are string interpolation and the String Format
Operator (%).

There is built-in Regular Expression support!

There are many more.

Look at the Wiki that is accessible from www.aparajitaworld.com
(unfortunately it appears to be down right now).

hth,

-- Brad Perkins

> Hello Active4Ders
>
> I'm just beginning to take a look at Active4D, hoping to use it to quickly
> build a robust web interface that we will offer to our vertical market
> customers.
>
> I've used 4D to create a fairly simple interactive (data entry) web site,
> but I'm needing a lot more.
>
> Besides the Active4D demo, can anyone suggest other resources to begin to
> learn and use Active4D.
>
> Gracious thanks,
>
> Randy Engle, Director
> XC2 Software, LLC
> mailto: randy.engle@...
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Active4D-dev mailing list
> Active4D-dev@...
> http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/mailman/listinfo/active4d-dev
> Archives: http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/archive/active4d-dev/
>

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[B. Perkins]

In case Aparajita should see this, the links to the Wiki from the Active
web site are no longer working.

-- Brad Perkins
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[aparajita]

> In case Aparajita should see this, the links to the Wiki from the  
> Active
> web site are no longer working.

I just tried it and it worked fine. Must have been a temporary hiccup  
in the wiki.

Regards,

    Aparajita
    www.aparajitaworld.com

    "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
    - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org


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[B. Perkins]

Yes, it is back up. Probably a hiccup or a local DNS problem.

-- Brad

>> In case Aparajita should see this, the links to the Wiki from the
>> Active
>> web site are no longer working.
>
> I just tried it and it worked fine. Must have been a temporary hiccup
> in the wiki.
>
> Regards,
>
>     Aparajita
>     www.aparajitaworld.com
>
>     "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
>     - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Active4D-dev mailing list
> Active4D-dev@...
> http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/mailman/listinfo/active4d-dev
> Archives: http://mailman.aparajitaworld.com/archive/active4d-dev/
>

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[Randy Engle]

Hi String,

Thanks for the zippy response.

Re:  Newbie Questions
After 20 Years with 4D, one thing I think I've learned is the art of asking
a newbie question.
Pride and insecurity, etc. are things I've pasted onto a dart board for
target practice in my spare time.

;-)

RE:
Are you considering Fusebox or Ajax? There are more resources specific  
to those technologies, and great support for them in A4D by the way.

Fusebox looks pretty cool, though I'm completely daunted by what I need to
do to get operational with it.
I'm hoping that the Active4D demo can give me an idea of where to start.

Any suggestions in this regard?

Thanks again for your input

Randy Engle, Director
XC2 Software, LLC
mailto: randy.engle@...


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[Peter Jakobsson-2]

Hi All

One of my customers' IT guys is becoming increasingly frustrated at  
the level of 503 errors they are getting from Apache which if  
fronting a 4D-Web server runnin an Active 4D solution.

The problem seems to be that when fielding requests, 4D just can't  
create the sockets fast enough for Apache to be happy.

Architecture is:

4D Data Server 2004.7 running under Windows 2003 Server
4D Client 2004.7 running as web server under Windows 2003 Server
Apache running on the same Windows machine as 4D Client

Apart from the 503's, performance is good and the site has been  
running for over a year successfully, but at higher loads, the error  
rate goes up even though 4D doesn't seem particularly taxed in terms  
of page serving capacity.

The problem is I'm not so savvy when it comes to low level TCP  
activity and optimising Apache / 4D communications.

If anyone else out there is I'd appreciate any pointers.

Regards

Peter

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[Peter Schumacher-2]

Peter,

wouldn't it help to create more web processes "on stock" and keep them  
running? Just create 2000 processes and let them run. In the idle  
state they don't consume anything.

Am 13.05.2009 um 10:57 schrieb Peter Jakobsson:

> 4D just can't create the sockets

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
[4D-Consulting.com]eK, Wiesbaden
Peter Schumacher
--------------------------------------------------------
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FreeCall:  0800-434 636 7
Tel.:      [phone] - Fax: [phone]
iChat/Skype: PeterInWiesbaden
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[Peter Jakobsson-2]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the reply - that sounds an interesting option which I'll  
suggest to them, however, I can't actually get 4D to 'stock up' pre-
emptively on web process (as far as I'm aware). It creates them in  
response to the request loading - is this correct ? (I can only set  
the 'maximum' number of web processes).

How would you go about doing this ?

Also, by 'keep them running' I assume your refering to the 'Reuse  
Temporary Contexts' option under the web preferences in 4D Client.  
I've never really been sure sure how to optimally co-ordinate the  
following preferences:

  - Web/options"Reuse Temporary Contexts" (4D Client - we always have  
on because web server runs much smoother)
  - Web/Advanced/Web Processes..."Inactive Web Process Timeout" and  
"Max Concurrent Web Processes"
  - Web/options/Keep Alive Connections.....Number of Requests by  
Connection" and "Connection Timeout"

For example - what's the difference between having "Reuse Temporary  
Contexts" on and  setting "Inactive Web Process Timeout" to  
"Unlimited" ?

Peter


On 13 May 2009, at 11:39, Peter Schumacher wrote:

> wouldn't it help to create more web processes "on stock" and keep  
> them running? Just create 2000 processes and let them run. In the  
> idle state they don't consume anything.

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[Peter Schumacher-2]

yes, that's it. With SET DATABASE PARAMETERS you do this. You will not  
see these processes, for some reasons, 4D doesn't display them in the  
server window.

Am 13.05.2009 um 11:58 schrieb Peter Jakobsson:

> (I can only set the 'maximum' number of web processes)

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
[4D-Consulting.com]eK, Wiesbaden
Peter Schumacher
--------------------------------------------------------
Web: http://www.4D-Consulting.com/
FreeCall:  0800-434 636 7
Tel.:      [phone] - Fax: [phone]
iChat/Skype: PeterInWiesbaden
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HR Wiesbaden: HRA 4867
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[Peter Schumacher-2]

Am 13.05.2009 um 11:58 schrieb Peter Jakobsson:

> - Web/options"Reuse Temporary Contexts" (4D Client - we always have  
> on because web server runs much smoother)

That's "context mode", just turn it off, you will not use it. It's a  
journalistic feature. :)

>
> - Web/Advanced/Web Processes..."Inactive Web Process Timeout" and  
> "Max Concurrent Web Processes"

Just set a hight timeout, like 5 hours and "Max Concurrent Web  
Processes" to 2000
>
> - Web/options/Keep Alive Connections.....Number of Requests by  
> Connection" and "Connection Timeout"

That's important. Otherwise, for each jpg in your page the browser  
creates a new connection. With keep alive 1 connection will be recycled.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
[4D-Consulting.com]eK, Wiesbaden
Peter Schumacher
--------------------------------------------------------
Web: http://www.4D-Consulting.com/
FreeCall:  0800-434 636 7
Tel.:      [phone] - Fax: [phone]
iChat/Skype: PeterInWiesbaden
4D-Consulting.com eK - Scharnhorststr. 36 - 65195 Wiesbaden
HR Wiesbaden: HRA 4867
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[Peter Jakobsson-2]

You can see them in the 4D server monitor by opening the client  
"processes" list.

Thanks for the response - I'll look into this in more detail !

Regards

peter


On 13 May 2009, at 12:45, Peter Schumacher wrote:

> yes, that's it. With SET DATABASE PARAMETERS you do this. You will  
> not see these processes, for some reasons, 4D doesn't display them  
> in the server window.

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[Peter Jakobsson-2]

Ah !

Sorry, I think mis-understood you. You mean that you can set MINIMUM  
number of web processes with SET DATABASE PARAMETER (which you can't  
set in the user interface). So you're saying that's how to 'stock up'  
on the processes on standby.

i.e. set MINIMUM web processes to 2000 in the code. (I hadn't been  
aware that that option was available in SET DATABASE PARAMETER).

Peter

On 13 May 2009, at 12:45, Peter Schumacher wrote:

> yes, that's it. With SET DATABASE PARAMETERS you do this.

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[aparajita]

> Fusebox looks pretty cool, though I'm completely daunted by what I  
> need to
> do to get operational with it.
> I'm hoping that the Active4D demo can give me an idea of where to  
> start.
>
>
> Any suggestions in this regard?

Get one of these fusebox books. The time invested in learning fusebox  
will be paid back many times over.

http://www.amazon.com/Fusebox-Developing-ColdFusion-Applications-VOICES/dp/0735712697
http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Fusebox-ColdFusion-Hal-Helms/dp/0972078630

Although these books are written using ColdFusion code, the fusebox  
concepts are the same.

Regards,

    Aparajita
    www.aparajitaworld.com

    "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
    - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org


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[aparajita]

Michael,

> We have several sites with A4D and various frameworks like Ext.  We
> need to incorporate a Printing/Report manager for generating onscreen
> reports and csv exports.  Anyone with experience or knowledge of such
> a product?  Something like Crystal Reports (but not as extensive), but
> open source would be spectacular.  We could feed it data via json, xml
> or even ODBC from A4D and the db.

Have you done a web search? There are a bunch of web-based report  
generators out there, but of course they want a SQL back end. They  
might work through ODBC->4D.

Regards,

    Aparajita
    www.aparajitaworld.com

    "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
    - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org


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[Randy Engle]

Thanks Aparajita,

This is what I'm looking for.

Randy Engle, Director
XC2 Software, LLC
mailto: randy.engle@...
VOICE: 415.258.9573
FAX: [phone]



-----Original Message-----
From: active4d-dev-bounces@...
[mailto:active4d-dev-bounces@...] On Behalf Of Aparajita
Fishman
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 5:03 AM
To: active4d-dev@...
Subject: Re: [Active4d-dev] Rank Newbie to Active 4D could use a push

> Fusebox looks pretty cool, though I'm completely daunted by what I  
> need to
> do to get operational with it.
> I'm hoping that the Active4D demo can give me an idea of where to  
> start.
>
>
> Any suggestions in this regard?

Get one of these fusebox books. The time invested in learning fusebox  
will be paid back many times over.

http://www.amazon.com/Fusebox-Developing-ColdFusion-Applications-VOICES/dp/0
735712697
http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Fusebox-ColdFusion-Hal-Helms/dp/0972078630

Although these books are written using ColdFusion code, the fusebox  
concepts are the same.

Regards,

    Aparajita
    www.aparajitaworld.com

    "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
    - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org


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[Michael Check]

What's this 'web' search you speak of? :)

Yeah, I found a lot of stuff and thought maybe someone had experience
with something in order to catalyze my research and experimentation.

The majority of what looks good (so far) is java based and beyond what
we need.  I was hoping that someone had done the trolling through open
source and proprietary programs and had some advice to offer.

Michael Check

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 7:03 AM, Aparajita Fishman
<aparajita@...> wrote:

> Michael,
>
>> We have several sites with A4D and various frameworks like Ext.  We
>> need to incorporate a Printing/Report manager for generating onscreen
>> reports and csv exports.  Anyone with experience or knowledge of such
>> a product?  Something like Crystal Reports (but not as extensive), but
>> open source would be spectacular.  We could feed it data via json, xml
>> or even ODBC from A4D and the db.
>
> Have you done a web search? There are a bunch of web-based report generators
> out there, but of course they want a SQL back end. They might work through
> ODBC->4D.
>
> Regards,
>
>   Aparajita
>   www.aparajitaworld.com
>
>   "If you dare to fail, you are bound to succeed."
>   - Sri Chinmoy   |   www.srichinmoy.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>

--
Thanks,

Michael Check
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[Mehboob Alam]

Try this combination:

4D -> MySQL
MySQL -> JDBC
JDBC -> Jasper Reports

MySQL:
http://www.pluggers.nl/myconnect_plugin.html

Jasper:
http://www.jaspersoft.com/JasperSoft_JasperReports.html

Unfortunately, 4Dv11 does not support JDBC, and the future there is uncertain. Hence my 4D -> MySQL suggestion.

sincerely,
mehboob alam


Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking. - Dave Barry




     
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