🚀 go-pugleaf

"Ray Porter" <ray_porter@unc.edu> wrote in message news:3adad84b_2@dnews...
> Hello all,
> In their infinite wisdom, our management has decreed that all applications
> (everything from mainframe CICS to little desktop apps) must be converted
to
> Java, with Oracle as the backend database if a db is needed.  We have
> several fairly major client/server and desktop applications (currently in
> Delphi) that interact directly with the Windows api and the office suite
of
> tools.  These are functions that our customers have requested and require
> (for example, exports of query results to local MS Access databases or to
> Excel and Word, etc).  Is there a way to duplicate this functionality in
> Java?  Can Java automate Windows applications?  The preferred methodology
> here is Java servlets and JSP which I think leaves us with even less
ability
> to interact with the local operating system.

One possibility would be to write small Windows applications using a scripts
language to do the import/export. VBA macros in MSWord/Excel/Access can
connect through an HTTP URL to the remote Java servlet which will return raw
text data that the script will insert into the Word/Excel/Access document or
database. This macros can be easily downloaded through the web interface.

You can also use Windows Host Script to run VBScript or JScript program on
the client windows machine. These could be even generated and downloaded
through a Java servlet, so that they will connect to the server with
temporary (information in a cookie for example) data to get the right data
back.

This has the benefit of downloading/installing very lightweight applications
on the client. No heavy C/C++/Delphi executable to install on each client.

--
Fr�d�ric Lachasse (ECP 86)
flachasse@qwest.net