Today, web development is extremely popular, but sometimes a rich Windows application provides the optimal solution. Web-based applications have come a long way, but there are still situations when a Windows application results in the best solution. Take iTunes, for example. Apple could have developed iTunes in any technology, yet a Mac and Windows desktop application still provided the best solution. Why is that?
Mature Windows Development Tools
The Windows development tools we use allow us to build robust, mature custom applications. Web development tools in general are still evolving, and many still have a long way to go to catch up to their desktop counterparts. Of course, technologies such as AJAX and Flash have helped narrow that gap, but a sizable gap still remains. That's not to say that the same (or similar) functionality cannot be accomplished using web technologies - of course it can. It just takes longer, and costs more.
For example, we can build a robust, full-featured database management system with Visual FoxPro (VFP) in a fraction of the time it would take in .NET, PHP, or any other web development tool (except maybe Ruby). Of course, that doesn't mean every application should be developed in VFP. If you need web capabilities, it doesn't matter how productive VFP is. We cannot really use it. So our goal is to find out early if a Windows application makes sense. If it does, we have the capability to create some pretty cool programs. If you need web, we can build some cool web applications too. It's all up to you.
Our Windows Development Tools
We use a small list of Windows programming tools that are geared towards database development. Specifically, we use the following Windows development and database tools:
- Visual Studio
- Microsoft Access
- Visual FoxPro
- SQL Server
- Visual Basic
Our Windows applications are almost always multi-user, client/server, three-tier systems. To best illustrate such a system, let's take a look at a case study.
Case Study: eInflatables
eInflatables is the fastest growing manufacturer of inflatable play structures in the United States. We were approached by eInflatables to design and build a custom manufacturing and order tracking database management system. The system we built was called the Customer Tracking System.
Technologies Used
To develop this innovative system, we utilized award-winning Windows programming tools such as Visual FoxPro and SQL Server. This multi-user, three-tier, client/server database management system (that's a mouthful) integrated three major modules, each representing a different business focus.
Let's look at each part of the system in more detail.
Event Tracking
eInflatables manufactured, sold and rented inflatable play structures. In the past, the rental portion of their business was the most problematic, and time-consuming. Rental inventory had to be controlled, assigned and routed according to the driver's territory. This job took all week to accomplish. In reality, the users were merely applying a complicated set of rules to determine who took which product where. We created a unique solution which took the guess-work out of the process, yet made last-minute changes possible.
Quote and Order Processing
Because eInflatables was selling directly to the public, they needed a system that matched their specific quote and order process. Over many years in the industry, they have developed highly custom ways of quoting and processing orders. Our job was to understand these unique requirements, and then build a system that integrated it. To make training new sales staff as easy as possible, we integrated an advanced scripting module into the system. It could be tailored by product type, day of the week, event, and a host of other criteria.
The Windows aaplication we developed allowed eInflatables to experience record sales growth, while improving productivity and cost efficiency. Here's some additional data on this Windows programming project:
- System Includes 75 modules
- Uses 4 Databases containing 150 tables
- Over 500,000 records (and counting)