[fpc-pascal] 3-tier database applications with FPC

[michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be]

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Just over 3 years ago I asked about FPC support for creating 3-tier
> database applications. The answer was basically: it's not possible
> (unless you roll your own Midas / Datasnap code).
>
> TClientDataset also missed some vital features, and the state of
> WebServices was also not complete.
>
> Here is the original message thread:
>
>   http://www.mail-archive.com/lazarus@lazarus.freepascal.org/msg00861.html
>
>
> So after 3 year, what has changed? Is the missing parts already
> implement, and is a Midas / Datasnap style 3-tier application possible
> with FPC?

Out of the box: no.

>
> I also believe Borland/CodeGear/Embarcadero released the Midas source
> code in post Delphi 7 versions. Anybody have success in compiling that
> code with FPC? Yes I know you can't release such code, and yes I know
> Datasnap will probably only work with Windows.  But from my Kylix 3
> manual it mentions TSoapConnection and WebServices for multi-tier
> development, so was wondering if FPC had no alternative, if I could
> possibly compile that Kylix 3 code using FPC - anybody tried this before?

Midas is written in C++, so that's not going to happen.

I got sidetracked on web-development, so the 3-tier support per-se is missing.

OTOH the web-development part has resulted in a ready-to-use packet transport 
layer. It's inefficient though, since it uses JSON or XML, but that can
easily be adapted to support a 'binary' packet.

And it would only work with HTTP as the transport layer.

Michael.