Thread: Guidance appreciated

Thanks to help from many on this forum, i have developed an Excel application that has been met with some considerable commercial success, having started out as a complete VB novice (never programmed before). The application is now quite bulky at 14 MB.

I now need to move on and translate this into a bullet-proof application with bullet-proof security etc. that can run standalone on a user's PC, utilising minimal resources etc. (e.g current application takes a considerable time to save, security & licensing issues etc)

Being an IT neophyte, I would sincerely appreciate any guidance as to what platform I should move to, to develop a solid commercial application. Also, with that platform are there any recommended tools on developing such an application that a relative beginner can use?

Any ideas most welcome... and a big thanks to you all that have helped me over the past 18 months

Cheers

PeterT (in Oz)

Hello Peter,

The best option for a stand alone application is publish it as an interactive web page. This provides the security you won't get by password protection. VBA passwords are very easy to defeat. The other drawback is VBA can't be compiled which means the source code is always available for viewing, and alteration by the user.

Publishing also frees the user from having to commit large amounts of system resources to your project. It provides you with an optimum way to control changes to your code. Sending out thousands of updates, and tracking them is a logistical nightmare. If someone doesn't install an update then you have spend extra time determining why the program isn't running correctly.

If you are using Excel as database, design it using the Open Database Connectivity guidelines. This will make it easier to interface with other commercial databases using SQL as a platform e.g., Oracle.

Sincerely,
Leith Ross

Thanks Leith for your input, pardon my lack of knowledge, what language/tools would I use to handle interactive web page developmet??

Again, many thanks for your help over the past 18 mos

Cheers

PeterT