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desktop or web???

 
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A project for a company, that has four branches in four different cities, should be a desktop application or a web application.

Only business user (company's employee) is going to use this project.

Thanks.
 
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We really do need to know a little more about what this application will do before helping with a decision like this.

Some applications are naturally more suited to a web interface (sequential form filling, or simple report generation, for example), whereas others are much more suited to a desktop style (device control, interactive graphics, etc.)

The number and location of users is often only a minor part of the decision process.
 
ankur rathi
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Originally posted by Frank Carver:
We really do need to know a little more about what this application will do before helping with a decision like this.

Some applications are naturally more suited to a web interface (sequential form filling, or simple report generation, for example), whereas others are much more suited to a desktop style (device control, interactive graphics, etc.)

The number and location of users is often only a minor part of the decision process.



Thanks Frank.

As I told, it will be used at four different locations. The number of users will be four at max untill the company does't open a new branch. No device control or system or graphics programming is needed.

Is it sufficient information to come up with any answer...

Please comments.

Thanks.
 
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Web architectures have a lot of appeal in things like "zero deployment" and access anywhere on the network. My current system changed platforms from fat client to web largely based on these benefits but kind of forgot to ask what the user was willing to give up in order to do it. Web apps can approach fat clients in rich user interface, but at the expense of a lot of complexity in Javascript. Since our users wanted to give up nothing (!) we wound up with lots of complicated browser-side code.

Be sure to factor in whether typical web-style interaction is acceptable to your users!
 
Frank Carver
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Originally posted by rathi ji:

As I told, it will be used at four different locations. The number of users will be four at max untill the company does't open a new branch. No device control or system or graphics programming is needed.

Is it sufficient information to come up with any answer...



Not really.

You still haven't really told us anything about what your application will do, and how the users will expect to use it. There are so many variables that affect this decision, and so many compromise solutions (from things like a desktop application that sends HTTP to a server, through to a "web" application with a complex Applet, Flash or JavaScript user interface sitting in a page).

Honestly, the more you can tell us about your application, what it should do, and how it will be used, the more likely we are to be able to help.

There is no simple answer. This is one of the reasons why consultant analysts are often paid so much money!
 
ankur rathi
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Originally posted by Frank Carver:


Not really.

You still haven't really told us anything about what your application will do, and how the users will expect to use it. There are so many variables that affect this decision, and so many compromise solutions (from things like a desktop application that sends HTTP to a server, through to a "web" application with a complex Applet, Flash or JavaScript user interface sitting in a page).

Honestly, the more you can tell us about your application, what it should do, and how it will be used, the more likely we are to be able to help.

There is no simple answer. This is one of the reasons why consultant analysts are often paid so much money!




This is for sure that they want to connect all four branches through this system, in more detail, if something happens at one branch, other branches can also look that....

Functionality is not very tough, simple database programming and GUI is needed....

It's running cost should be less, Here I don't mean maintainence....

Does it give some more information???

Thanks.

 
ankur rathi
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Hello Frank,

I am still waiting!!!

Thanks.
 
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Write down some use cases (stories or diagrams about what the system will do and how people will interact with it.) Look at each one, and think about how it would be implemented. If all the use cases you can come up with would work easily in a Web application environment, then generally that's what I'd want to do, for the zero-deployment/ease-of-maintenence angle.

If, on the other hand, you come up with use cases that sound hard to implement as a Web application, then you need to consider a desktop app. Even in this case, consider how much of the app could (or must) be a server application of which the desktop app is a client.
 
Frank Carver
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'd love to help, but you have still not told us anything about what your application is supposed to do.

You mention some sort of information transfer, but nothing about what sort of information, how often, how much data, whether there might ever be a "clash" between different branches trying to change the same thing at the same time, how important the data is to the operation of the business, what are the consequences of delays or data corruption, whether the separate branches are always on-line to each other and all the other things that are important in this sort of decision.

As I said before, you really need to describe the application, in enough detail that we can get a reasonable understanding of what you want to achieve. Without that any suggestion would be just a guess.
 
ankur rathi
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Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
Write down some use cases (stories or diagrams about what the system will do and how people will interact with it.) Look at each one, and think about how it would be implemented. If all the use cases you can come up with would work easily in a Web application environment, then generally that's what I'd want to do, for the zero-deployment/ease-of-maintenence angle.

If, on the other hand, you come up with use cases that sound hard to implement as a Web application, then you need to consider a desktop app. Even in this case, consider how much of the app could (or must) be a server application of which the desktop app is a client.



Thanks EHF and Frank for your response.

According to EFH comments, I think, I should go for Web Application, because as I told functionality is very simple and can be implemented in both. So Web Application would be better choice.

Thanks again.
 
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