Recommendations Needed

Met with client today that has a significantly sized Xojo Web1 CRM and Commissions system for a moderately sized insurance broker in Kansas City. Since we’re not confident that Web1 will continue to work long term, and there is no realistic upgrade path to Web 2, we recommended that they move on to something else. At least start the process sooner rather than later. We’ve also told them that we’ve moved on from the consulting world and can, at best, help guide them towards their next technology and offer some technical assistance with questions.

Given that it’s Xojo Web 1 and we have extensive use of ActiveRecord (so a lot of very nice repeatable interfaces) for a MySQL database, along with our Shorts web reporting tool, what web app tech would you recommend for them? They tend to have 40 to 50 active users during the day and maybe up to 100 users total. They have a need for customized reports. They use a cloud server that it HIPPA certified (not that they have much personal data but sometimes they do have medical notes on some users).

The system has a full audit trail. They also have the ability to store documents in a separate mySQL database from their customer and commissions data. Much of what they want is to duplicate functionality but there is a part of the commissions that we’d have built different if we’d known how much data they’d be generating every month.

So, recommendations on technology (non-Xojo). Ideally something that anyone can take over if the original developers get hit by a bus.

PM if you are interested in talking to them.

I dont know their price range, but https://wisej.com/ could be a choice maybe?

Its RAD, and in dot net, so there should be plenty of resources when it comes to developers

or Vaadin which is java based
again pile of resources and lots of options for add ons

Java + Apache Wicket (https://wicket.apache.org) + Apache Tomcat Server (https://tomcat.apache.org) makes a very fast and reliable web-application which can handle many more users than required by your client. For the database part „Hibernate“ (https://hibernate.org) and for reporting „JasperReports“ (JasperReports® Library | Jaspersoft Community).

Web developer courses on edX (Harvard, University of Michigan, IBM, …) seem to favour Django

… and teaching at University favours Linux. There IS a difference between teaching requirements and business requirements :wink:

Vaadin. Simply Java. Not to complex, fast t learn and high level of investment protection, scalable and not to expensive, the core framework is even open Source and usable for free. Every Java Swing Developer can fix Vaadin apps without any problem cause the technics are the same and the structure is known. Potentially around 12 Million potential developers can work with it. More than very other framework can provide.

And seeing as Bob was talking of a web application it’s quite likely to be deployed on a Linux server too.

I watched a video tutorial on Vaadin and it certainly does look very good. I also did a job search for it and got a very small number of results. That’s a concern seeing as one of Bob’s requirements was:

If you do a job search for Django there’s lots of results.

Possibly. Vaadin is there 20 years. Every Swing Developer can do this and most companies using it are former Swing programmers which are resetting their Apps to web. That is quite simple with vaadin cause it is to program like Java Swing. it is the same way codenameone is doing with Mobile. So: people which have large Java Apps search for Java Programmers with Swing Skills. Not for any specialists while they are not needed to program with Vaadin

As addition: Django is a Web framework more for Web Design and not for real scalable Web applications while Vaadin is an enterprise ready well supported Web Application System. You can’t really compare them.

Prior to using Xojo I built a CRM amongst other things in VB.net/ASP.net . I looked at C# to replace a number of Xojo Web 1.0 solutions including a CRM; it’s more than capable of this, but I ended up going with Vala . Both required knowing HTML, CSS and JavaScript but even Xojo Web 2.0 requires a reasonable knowledge of these (knowing HTML, CSS and JavaScript was just really useful IMO).

Vaadin needs NO knowledge about Web, html, CSS: NONE

Another java based: OpenXava

Heh

Active project
6 releases/year, half of them maintenance releases (just with bug fixes). Since 2005.

go figure

Take a look at Servoy. It is a RAD for db-driven apps that uses javascript for development, so there is a large pool of potential developers.

Also relatively pricey. $1000/month and $10/user/month.

It does seem a steep jump from the community free edition to the enterprise one
From FREE to $999/month + $10/user/month

Now if it helps you generate 10K a month, or more, then 999/month isn’t so bad
But the pricing doesnt seem set up to help a business grow

Openxava get’s a big mount of control above your application. That is my point why I decided to use Vaadin instead. The Company is about 20 years active and has tons of updates every year including security updates. The Vaadin Apps are near to that what you expect from Xojo if somebody would ask me, openxava is more close to a business application system.

I’ve been evaluating fastcgi with python. Not deep enough to recommend but seems promising.