Web app newbie - saving and reading data

Targets Web
1

Hi, I’m returning to xojo having had some experience of building simple desktop apps. I would like to try web apps but am struggling a bit with the concept.

For a simple desktop app I would put the app in a folder along with other folders for images and maybe text or binary files and read and write those files. Can I do more or less the same thing with a web app - sending the whole program folder by FTP to my Linux VPS server? I’m not by skilled in unix, so that side of it is also a bit worrying.

Rather than run the remote app in a commercial browser is there any reason I shouldn’t build a desktop app to query the remote app? I’m sorry if these questions sound a bit dim. I can’t find any text books or documentation online other than the really simple ‘build a remote to do list’ examples.

Thanks if you can help

2

That is the basics. I found the easiest to start with a cgi build and upload to cgi-bin, so I could simply call it like any other cgi script. If the files are confidential, you may want to place them under the Web space, ie under the cgi or html space.

If you already have a VPS, go ahead and try. If not, I have been using 1701software.com for years. The advantage is that they specialize in Xojo hosting, so won’t have to jump all the hoops necessary elsewhere.

The Rolls Royce of Xojo apps hosting is of course Xojo Cloud, but it is also the most expensive.

For that you may want to use the App.HandleURL or App.HandleSpecialURL events which enable you to tap into your app as a web service, with your own protocol and without all the web UI paraphernalia.