John Iacovelli - Clarion on the Net: the Intranet, Internet, Extranet, and Any Other Nets That Should Happen to Pop Up.

by Jay Ambrose

Published 1997-09-01    Printer-friendly version

• 20 million computers are attached to the internet
• ISPs are offering services like backing up customers files
• Bandwidth is catching up with user requirements 
• Network speed is up and proces are down
• A number of major software vendors are providing updates and applications that operate over the net

The trend is that customers want to run their software over the net and they want it to operate just like it does on the desktop, according to John Iacovelli, Director of Sales Communications for TopSpeed Corporation.

With Clarion Internet Connect this is possible by adding a global extension template to your existing application.

A review of other existing technologies was given including pure Java and ActiveX, but none offered the simplicity or simple implementation of Clarion.

A demo of Clarion Internet Connect was given. The screens displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer looked very similar to a Clarion application running on a Windows desktop.

Some of the technical specs are:

• The server should be Windows NT based
• The user's browser must support and allow Java
• A very small Java class set (less than 300k) is sent to the client machine the first time the user runs a Clarion Internet Connect application.

This is the best of both worlds, because you can run a rich application on the server and a thin client. (In a thin client, the user interface is transmitted to the client, while the application remains on the server - editor). This system produces a minimum of network traffic. "The net is here and now! It's time for you to program for the net", John said as he concluded.

My overall impression is that there could not be a simpler way to run an application over the net, even if you are new to Clarion. This product will surely get new developers on the Clarion bandwagon. If you are a Clarion developer or have a Clarion program that you want to run across the net, this product is a "no-brainer".

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942