Meta-Delphi question about web hosting..

[jglosz 0]

Hi..  I'd like to create a niche-ecommerce platform, like ebay but between very specific customers for the web, for starters. It would need access to a large DB (so, using AWS or Azure) and I'd love to create a Delphi FMX app to be hosted on a standard Windows (or Linux?) host which would present dynamic pages to the user (based on their search terms).. and then they can choose and then order/buy something..    My questions:

 

1.  Is using Delphi overkill in your opinion? I'm very comfortable with Delphi, but is the hassle of getting an application hosted on a web host too difficult? Looks to me like some hosts (like GoDaddy) don't allow such things.  So would just something web-native like Javascript be a better choice? 

 

2. If a web-hosted Delphi application is workable, would you have a particular host recommendation? Is there one you like? 

 

3. And of course, a phone app (both Android and iOS) ..  I created a simple iOS app once, about 10 years ago, and even got it in the Apple store, but man were there a LOT of hoops to jump through.  I haven't revisited the iOS side of Delphi since, but I hope it's gotten easier, lol! 

 

Thank you for any advice you may have!  [heart emoji here] 

 

Joseph

[Angus Robertson 574]

You need a data centre hosted server, either a physical machine you rent or own, or a virtual private server running on data centre hardware, you then have complete control over what applications are installed, not sure why you want FMX unless for Linux. 

 

I have a hosted Dell rack server in one data centre, and a secondary VPS in another, running all my Delphi servers.  But many companies just order virtual servers from Azure, AWS and others, which have the benefit of scaling, but can be horribly expensive.  

 

Azure seems easy to buy, I've been getting spam emails from 50 or more Azure VPSs in India, USA, Netherlands and the UK, Microsoft seems to sell VPS to anyone. 

 

Angus

 

[PhilPlus 6]

A FMX (or VCL) application is not a Web application. The best way, if you need to have a full Delphi Web dev project, is to use a framework like TMS Web Core : https://www.tmssoftware.com/site/tmswebcore.asp or UniGui : https://www.unigui.com/ both creating web applications in Delphi.

[Die Holländer 45]

5 hours ago, PhilPlus said:

if you need to have a full Delphi Web dev project, is to use a framework like...

or https://thinfinity-vui-v3-docs.cybelesoft.com/

It seems it delivers the whole environment needed..

Delphi Demo

Edited November 5 by Die Holländer

[David Schwartz 426]

I second the recommendation for TMS WEB Core. It's just like building a VCL or FMX app, but it runs in the web browser. The language has been enhanced a bit to deal with async issues, but it's easy to learn. (Once you do, you wonder why it's not in Delphi's core.)

[Patrick PREMARTIN 68]

On 11/5/2024 at 3:35 PM, Die Holländer said:

or https://thinfinity-vui-v3-docs.cybelesoft.com/

It seems it delivers the whole environment needed..

Delphi Demo

For an internal app in a company or paid users Thinfinity can be a good simple solution.
For a public website it's too expensive. Use Delphi as a server on Windows or Linux if you want and dynamic website solutions (from Delphi or others).

 

For an e-commerce site it could be easier to use an existing solution like LiteCart (simple, easy to use) or Prestashop (more complex but full of features for any commerce) and synchronize its database to your real DB.