One of the companies I worked for used an applet to load data from a webapp and insert it into an Access 1.0 DB file in the users hard drive.
After exporting the data, the user would have to run a really old gov't program (to which the Access DB file belonged) to upload the data to a legacy server, over X.25 (click an icon on the desktop).
The most important requirement is to use the DB file installed in the user's hard drive (always same directory, no way to change it): can't generate new ones because the gov't program stores some cryptic arcane data in it, and even though we could reverse engineer it, we wouldn't be legally covered if we sent the wrong cryptic data.
Second requirement is: users are ignorant, don't know how to save files and how to navigate directory trees, 'computers = magic' to them.
Have them download and run a desktop program. You could even write it in Java and also bundle a jre within an exe for actually better overall experience for windows users.
> Have them download and run a desktop program. You could even write it in Java and also bundle a jre within an exe for actually better overall experience for windows users.
Yeah, it would work. Could even have used Java Web Start.
The webapp would have to be developed as a web service with a desktop client (and maybe a web client as well), as the data created by different users, with different roles, and in different office buildings, had to be shared.
Is it OK to bundle the JRE in a closed-source program, though?
Yeap. It's preferred to vendor a JRE (non-system JRE) inside your app (which is basically just extracting it to some dir you always control), which doesn't conflict with whatever else is on the box (no registry settings, /etc/profile or common locations like /usr/some/unix/path/to/system/jre ), and auto-update your app which includes updating the JRE. This is how to deploy a supportable app, which reduce support tickets about "you broke our apps, our IT department is going to call our VPs and is going to call your VPs" and pre-sales issues like "we can't buy this because we can't change JRE versions."
>One of the companies I worked for used an applet to load data from a webapp and insert it into an Access 1.0 DB file in the users hard drive...After exporting the data, the user would have to run a really old gov't program (to which the Access DB file belonged) to upload the data to a legacy server, over X.25 (click an icon on the desktop)....
> How would you address this situation?
Well, first I would sign up for a github account. You know steps two and three.
I just noticed this got downvoted. What I meant is that in a situation like that it's really time to polish your github and linkedin, so you can quickly get a different job. If it's a fragile legacy system with Access 1.0 (!) and a bunch of external requirements you aren't allowed to touch, how much of a change can you make?
After exporting the data, the user would have to run a really old gov't program (to which the Access DB file belonged) to upload the data to a legacy server, over X.25 (click an icon on the desktop).
The most important requirement is to use the DB file installed in the user's hard drive (always same directory, no way to change it): can't generate new ones because the gov't program stores some cryptic arcane data in it, and even though we could reverse engineer it, we wouldn't be legally covered if we sent the wrong cryptic data.
Second requirement is: users are ignorant, don't know how to save files and how to navigate directory trees, 'computers = magic' to them.
How would you address this situation?