Frequently Asked Questions
Which operating systems does FoxWeb support?
FoxWeb supports all modern versions of Windows. FoxWeb will not run under UNIX, Linux
or OS X. If you have data created or maintained on these operating systems, you can
still use a PC-based server running FoxWeb.
Top
Which versions of FoxPro is FoxWeb compatible with?
FoxWeb requires Visual FoxPro 6 to 9. If you already have VFP installed on a
different workstation and do not wish to buy another license for the server, or you
are a developer and do not want your client to have to purchase VFP you can run
FoxWeb using the VFP Run-Time Library. For more information on this subject check
the FoxWeb documentation.
You do not need to upgrade any other workstations in your office. Visual FoxPro can
access data created by older versions, including FoxPro for DOS.
Top
Which Web servers does FoxWeb support?
FoxWeb requires a Web server that supports the CGI or ISAPI specifications. It will
work with virtually every Windows server out there, including Microsoft IIS and
Apache.
Top
Can I get my existing FoxPro applications to run over
the web?
Because of the nature of the World-Wide-Web, there is no way you could take an
existing FoxPro application and just get it to run over the web. Web browsers
receive information in a language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and
send information back to servers using HTML forms. In order for FoxPro to
communicate with web browsers, it must be able to read the input of HTML forms
and format its output as HTML text. For this reason, the input and output
routines of existing applications will have to be re-written. Other procedures
handling the logic of the application (e.g. queries, data-updates, etc.) can
remain as is.
In some cases existing reports can be used without modification, by re-directing
their output to a text file and then sending it to the browser (<PRE> tags
have to be added at the beginning and the end of the text). This method works
adequately if you have a large number of reports that you want to convert in a
hurry, but the output appears just like an ASCII text dump with no formatting.
If, on the other hand, you want to have aesthetically pleasing reports that take
advantage of the HTML formatting tags, you will need to either include these
tags in the reports, or use a different method to create HTML output.
Top
Can I write FoxWeb programs remotely?
You can write your programs on your local workstation and then transfer them
(over a LAN or FTP) to your server. If you have VFP installed on your server,
FoxWeb will automatically compile your programs the next time they are requested
by a user.
Top
Can I test my FoxWeb programs locally before
placing them on my Web server?
You can write and test your FoxWeb programs locally, even if you do not have an
Internet connection. After you are satisfied with the results you can transfer
them to your Web server. You need to install VFP, a Web server software package
and FoxWeb on your local machine and use "localhost" as the Internet address in
the URL.
Top
How many concurrent users can FoxWeb
support?
It is a mistake to measure load on the server in terms of concurrent users.
Unlike other protocols, HTTP, the protocol that carries Web traffic does not
keep a live connection between a web-based application and its users. Users are
not "logged in", but rather initiate a connection when they click on a
hyper-link. The connection is broken once the request is served. The whole
process typically takes a fraction of a second.
A more appropriate measure of a server's load is requests per hour. A
well-written FoxWeb application running on a mid-range server should be able to
handle at least 10 requests per second. Assuming a constant load, this number
translates to almost 40,000 hits per hour. A high-end server can handle much
more (FoxWeb has been tested with a sustained load of 200,000 hits per hour).
Top
What kind of hardware do I need?
The hardware you need depends on a number of factors, including the traffic on
your site, the complexity of your applications, the size of your tables, and the
number and nature of other services running on your FoxWeb server. Obviously the
busiest sites will require powerful multi-processor systems with lots of memory
and storage, or even multiple servers in a load-balanced configuration.
Top
What is a channel? How many channels should I
run?
Please refer to the Configuration page of the
FoxWeb documentation for information on this topic.
Top
