Re: How to deploy a forms application ???

In article <7q3244$dik$1_at_nnrp1.deja.com>, Nabil Courdy <moab_at_emirates.net.ae> writes
>
>
>We are developing our first Oracle application.
>The database (Oracle 8.1.5) will reside on a DEC-UNIX.
>We have two DEC-UNIX machines, one to support a failover
>mechanism. We are struggling with the question of how to
>deploy the application. We have two options:
>1) Distribute the images to all Win NT clients
>2) use the the second DEC-UNIX server as the application image
>file server. However, this will need a product like PC-NFS.
>The first option is not desirable since it makes the process of
>distributing the images very complex and requires fat clients. Does
>anyone know how viable the second option is or if there are more
>attractive products than PC-NFS out there? Hw about MS SMS product to
>distribute the image to all NT clients if we do consider the first
>option.

I prefer a centrally served application - it's easier to administrate when updates occur and unless you are doing a lot of constant form loading the network traffic should not be too much of a problem.

However, I'm not sure that your definition of thick and thin is particularly accurate - your NT client is going to run the forms locally whether the forms are picked up from a central server or from a local directory.

You could consider running SAMBA on your DEC box so as to provide a Windows-like file server.

If you want the application files on the client, consider using FTP to access the files from the server during start-up, etc. It's relatively simple to set-up a fairly sophisticated FTP script to download the appropriate files.

Andy

>
>Nabil Courdy
>======================
>
>--
>Nabil Courdy
>mooab_at_emirates.net.ae (Sub moab for mooab)
>======================
>
>
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-- 
Andy Hardy. PGP key available on request
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