2/23/2025 11:00:26 PM
|
| |
| slxdeveloper.com Community Forums |
|
| |
|
|
The Forums on slxdeveloper.com are now retired. The forum archive will remain available for the time being. Thank you for your participation on slxdeveloper.com!
Forum to discuss the use of the SalesLogix Web Platform, Client and Customer Portals, and the Application Architect (For version 7.2 and higher only). View the code of conduct for posting guidelines.
|
|
|
|
Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 12:39 PM
|
Please forgive me if this question is naive: is there any easy way to convert LAN customizations to Web customizations in v7.2.x or v7.5? I asked based on the old Legacy to Active form converter and the cool new features in SLX v7.5. We have thousands of hours of customizations in our v7.2.1 LAN client that we couldn't afford to build from scratch in the web. I welcome your insights. 
Michael |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 2:34 PM
|
Hi Michael,
No good news. There was a beta for a tool that started back in January and never went past that - I don't know if it will be resurected now post-Gold on 7.5.
Even with that tool, there is still going to be a lot of work to do. All your LAN customisations have business rules and events coded in VBScript - there is just no good way (AFAIK) that these can be automatically converted from one format into another. A lot of the ways that you do things are different so it just won't work.
Stephen
www.slxmaster.com
|
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 2:54 PM
|
As Stephen mentioned, there is a unsupported beta tool to assist in converting LAN customizations to web (likely still yet unreleased - if it will ever be). However, I'd recommend forgetting all about it and never using it. 
Seriously though. Don't use it and don't fool yourself into thinking that it is a good idea or will save you some time.
Here is why. The way things *should* be developed for the web is so different than the LAN that translating exactly a LAN form over to the web creates a customization that is done in a way that a web customization shouldn't be done. In the web, logic should be in business rules and entity events. It's a different world and requires a different approach to how customizations are done. Period. Code on the form just makes upgrades extremely more difficult. This wizard puts way too much code on the form itself in LoadActions etc, creating a poorly designed customization as far as how the web infrastructure is *supposed* to work. Does that make sense? Taking a LAN customization and translating that as it is designed for the LAN is is like entering a Honda Civic in the Indy 500. Sure, the Civic might drive around the track. But you'll never win with it and the gap between your Civic and the other cars will become further and further apart, and don't expect to make it past the qualifying laps.
While the tool might seem like an attractive idea at first, don't kid yourself into thinking you're saving yourself some time by using it. In the long run, you're not making things any easier by using it since you'll be creating sub-par customizations that you'll be stuck with.
-Ryan |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 3:02 PM
|
Thank you both for the honest feedback. I thought that we were too far into the LAN Client to switch horses, so to speak.
One of the hidden drivers in looking at web was the single (well, 6 or so) point of upgrade,rather than touching 700 users machines. We have started offering remote users the option to use Citrix instead (size limits in MSDE prompted that.) Any thoughts on using Citrix instead of LAN Clients in a LAN environment? Sorry for the cross-topic question
Michael |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 3:07 PM
|
Thank you both for the honest feedback. I thought that we were too far into the LAN Client to switch horses, so to speak.
One of the hidden drivers in looking at web was the single (well, 6 or so) point of upgrade,rather than touching 700 users machines. We have started offering remote users the option to use Citrix instead (size limits in MSDE prompted that.) Any thoughts on using Citrix instead of LAN Clients in a LAN environment? Sorry for the cross-topic question
Michael |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 3:15 PM
|
One other thing to keep in mind, and this is just my opinion - other opinions will definitely vary.
IMO, the time involved in customizing the LAN client might actually be less when recreating the same customizations in the web. Mainly due to the entity model, entity events, business rules, etc, where things can be built much "smarter" than in the LAN client. I have many customers where the business logic is riddled throughout endless scripts and forms, changing and testing these are a huge effort since there are so many places to touch. These same customizations in the web would be much easier since all the business logic and rules are implemented as a part of the entity itself. They just "happen" as needed. The forms for the most part are all just really unintelligent data-bound forms. The logic happens elsewhere in the entity events and rules. That said, there is a higher barrier to entry when customizing the web. It's not exactly as intuitive as the LAN customizations, so it does take some experience to be able to say it is easier or at least more efficient to customize the web than the LAN client. But that is my opinion.
-Ryan |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 26 Sep 08 4:31 PM
|
We use Citrix. It works okay. Biggest issue with Citrix is the cost of Citrix licenses/server. (And maybe copy/pasting and sometimes printing doesn't work properly.)
We didn't have much LAN customization though, and using the Web Client is a lot easier. No need to muck around with installing Clients or anything. |
|
|
|
Re: Converting LAN Client customizations to web
Posted: 27 Sep 08 7:05 AM
|
Michael, as Stephen and Ryan mentioned their was/is a tool for migration thought it was very early in its capabilities. The problem with the tool itself is that it did very little in the long run of getting the customizations over. There was also prep work that had to be done to the existing UI customizations to ensre that the came over reliability.
The biggest problem is dealing with the complete paradigm shift where things are really done in such a complete different way. Gone is the ubuiqutious Application object that much of the customizations hinge on, replaced with a much more robust framework. You are also moving from a Scripting environment to a full .Net type of solution. Though you can get away with codeless customizations for some of your functionality honestly most solutions contain so much business logic that it is really nessacary to evaluate each function point and translate it using the best approach. Since you now have the full richness of the architecture and the capability of the .Net framework things that seemed Kludgy before are just that much easier. I think one of the biggest conversion items/issues is the use of the Data acess Layer in SLX lan (Pseudo) that extensively uses ADO objects where as no with the Web Client there is NHibernate and ADO.net. Having a solid understanding of .Net (framework) and one or more of the Languages ( C#, VB.net) goes a very long way in easing ing the transition. It is completely possible that moving to the web can acutually reduce the amount of code required to get a given solution to work. Also bear in mind that some things in the web may also not be available and will required some thought to get them to work.
Mark |
|
|
|
You can
subscribe to receive a daily forum digest in your
user profile. View the site code
of conduct for posting guidelines.
 Forum RSS Feed - Subscribe to the forum RSS feed to keep on top of the latest forum activity!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|