Hello. I am trying to learn more about how to create a phone app and optional website using a test project that will upload some data to the site, request some data back ie search the db etc. I see some very inexpensive refurb servers on Amazon and craigslist for just a few hundred dollars. Some claim “no OS” installed. Some have win10. I have several Mac computers and several win10 computers to get started learning. I’ve never tried Linux. I’m familiar with Xojo for desktop apps but no experience with an API or creating my own server.
The question is, if I start with Xojo creating an API on Mac or Win10 just to have an easy low cost dedicated server at home and then later find out that it would be better for commercial release to do what most people do which is some form or Linux(probably Red Hat), will the transition to build the Linux be fairly easy for simple API? Or would it be best to build the Linux server and start out with the Linux version? My hope is to do the simplest way to get started but I want to anticipate growing into the more widely used Linux down the road. In such a case it appears that it would be easy to just drop in a different drive to have the Linux version of the server.
It’s my understanding from many years of Mac and PC Xojo projects that it is often very minimal/no effort to build the same app for both Mac and PC, but I’ve never built for Linux, so hopefully someone that has been down this road might say hey just build on whatever is simpler and then the transition is simple to Linux later on when you cross that bridge.
I haven’t run into any significant issues moving between Mac, Windows and Linux to host API servers. Take a look at Aloe by Tim Dietrich. His current edition is Aloe XWS, which allows you to create an API using the web project target. I maintain a repo of his previous iteration of Aloe that uses the console target. It’s straightforward to get going and handles a lot of the work for you when it comes to handling the nitty-gritty of HTTP requests.
Thanks, I had talked to Paul and he suggested the Aloe, also talked to Tim and I downloaded Aloe and tested it with a free PAW app on OSX and it works well. So I think the API can be developed on Mac or Pc and when the time comes that a Linux would be best, as it seems like the adaptation would be pretty easy as well as creating a VM or separate drive.
I’ve been doing some research on building a home brew server and found a local guy with a lot of Dell PowerEdge R620 units that have a Microsoft 2012 server OS with lifetime license on it. Would an app built with Xojo run on this OS? I’m thinking the first test platform would be windows then down the road build a Linux version.
Thanks for the reply. Is there a go to method for remotely developing an API and uploading the new build as it progresses to the server without having to constantly use USB drives to move from my laptop to the server which may be some distance in the house and could be many updates over time.