Can I use REDIS in my application which needs to be run in windows platform.
I'm worried about the statement in the official site
The Redis project does not directly support Windows, however the
Microsoft Open Tech group develops and maintains an experimental
Windows port targeting Win32/64. Currently the port is not production
quality but can be used for development purposes on Windows
environments. We look forward for collaborating with the authors of
this efforts but currently we will not merge the Windows port to the
main code base.
or any other alternates(windows platform) providing the same functionality?
I think there is something wrong in your understanding : Do not be confused between where your application is hosted and where Redis server is hosted.
As a separate (NoSql) Database Redis can be consumed by MANY client types. Check this : you could use Redis in C#, Ruby, C, PHP, Java... So your application could be written in any technology, you just have to connect to a Redis server.
You're true, Redis is not directly supported on Windows but Microsoft has forked the project a few month ago. The git is available here. Even if it's not production-ready, it's a valid solution for dev environment.
The good question is : does your application could be run on multiple environnements, Windows and/or Linux ? I suppose it's a web app. This means front-end on Windows and Redis DB on Linux.
In some companies, there are strict rules in order to use only one tech : Windows or Linux. Having Cohesive technos is important, but I personally think it's sometimes better to setup everything that will help you to get the job done.
Related
I have developed some shiny apps which I want to make available to a few selected internal users for testing purposes and continued development.
Deploying the apps on the cloud or on shinyapps.io is not an option, as the apps are handling sensitive internal data.
Using ShinyServer is unfortunately also not an option, as we have a strict Microsoft only IT architecture and I thus have available only
a virtual machine with Windows Server 2012 R2 on it.
I have been doing some web search and have found out the following:
i.) I could host my apps on the Windows machine as explained here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44584982/7306540 . This seems rather hackish and
not elegant at all. It would only allow hosting of one app at a time and I am not sure if it would allow several concurrent users at all.
ii.) I could use shinyproxy.io which would possibly work on the Windows machine but involves a fair amount of quite complex installation
and configuration work that I am not particularly keen on doing.
iii.) SQLServer 2016 seems to feature some sort of R integration. We are currently using SQLServer2014 and it would be possible to upgrade to 2016
in principle. However, I don't know if the "R features" of SQLServer2016 would allow hosting of Shiny Apps. I found this blog post, https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/1cf94cbb-c45d-4f8d-8b5e-9d208bfe369a/microsoft-r-server-can-i-host-shiny-apps-yet?forum=MicrosoftR , but without an answer:
Q: Does anyone know more about the capabilities of SQLServer2016 in this regard?
What about other options? Is there any other way to host my apps on the Windows Server? Do the makers of RStudio plan to add a Windows version of ShinyServer? Is anyone else working on this?
I would appreciate any insights into this topic!
EDIT:
Additional hosting options:
iv.) We can install a VM on the Windows Server, e.g. Virtual Box, or VM Player, install Linux and Shiny Server and host from there. We might run into problems in this variant if the Shiny Apps need to access SQL Server DB's on the Windows machine.
i.) This variant could possibly be improved by using (quote #gregL): "pm2.keymetrics.io, a process manager typically used for Node.js in production. The plumber docs describe how you can use pm2 with R: rplumber.io/docs/hosting.html#pm2"
Hosting of Shiny Apps is possible on Windows!
At work, we host several production shiny dashboards, so it is definitely possible. You can host more Shiny apps by extending the i.) solution you mentioned, and using different ports for the Apps. The steps that you need to take are listed here:
make sure that the port is open in the local (evtl. also remote) firewall for TCP/IP connections
run a "scheduled task" on the local machine that starts a local R session as described in i.), make sure that the task does time-out and restarts if needed
Once these settings are in place, you can already test the Shiny App, first locally, and also from the remote station. Editing the shiny app can be done also live, in what the GUI is concerned, but if you want to refresh the data, you will have to restart the R command process.
Tip: You should also have an index webpage where you list all running apps with their ports
I'm trying to build a RESTful internal web server at work using node.js, where I'm currently restricted to using a Windows 2003 Server.
I've hit a stumbling block with regards to database support however. Are there any bindings currently available for reading and writing to sqlite, PostgreSQL or MySQL on Windows based machines?
Mariano has mentioned Windows support in the future in these comments, but ideally I'd like to use something available just now as a proof of concept.
I'm author of mysql-native.
Both official (felixge node-mysql) and my driver has been successfully used under windows,
I'm using and developing it under linux/windows 50/50% time . Feel free to contact me if you have any questions
Have you tried mysql-native? It's native (mysql) which means there are no other dependencies, so should run on any platform node supports. Seems to be actively maintained also, and has some examples to show you how to use the library. Link: https://github.com/sidorares/nodejs-mysql-native
I'm in the process of reengineering a desktop application to a Silverlight4-WCF client-server architecture. Apparently, some (not all) of our clients have very limited resources or dysfunctional relationships with their I/T support staff. Consequently, I've been asked to come up with a solution that would enable these clients to install the new SL app on a local desktop, possibly running IIS locally. Will probably wrap all this up in a installer to make deployment super easy.
While I don't endorse the idea of running IIS locally on each user's desktop, my thinking is that it will probably work. The biggest problem I envision is security -- the server code and configuration would be available locally. Still, I'm looking for input from the wider developer community because I'm uncomfortable by the proposal. What kind of hell and difficulties do you envision, or can this work with minimal fuss?
Using IIS locally may be more trouble than it's worth. Most configuration/maintenance tasks require the user to have Administrator access on the computer. Securing it is a bitch. Making sure its configuration doesn't drift and remains working as you release new versions is even more so. Moreover, it's not included in all Windows editions, e.g. Windows 7 Home edition. I recommend trying to roll with IIS Express as an embedded HTTP server instead.
As for code security - if you can't trust your clients' IT to look after deployment and security, or they can't/don't want to, you could host the server-side yourself and bill your customers for it, i.e. SaaS.
Just my 2 cents.
EDIT:
Oh, yeah. If you're concerned about trade secret theft, e.g. reverse engineering of your server code, just run it through an obfuscator, e.g. SmartAssembly. That'll give you an edge. As for IP theft, e.g. piracy, use could use some online license checking scheme - it won't compromise client privacy, and it'll deter copying.
I just heard that a company I do work for may be bringing in the Pyxis Mobile application development system. When I google it most of what I find is from the company's web site and that is not very informative from a geek perspective. Can any one shed some light on what sort of programming environment it is and what programing language is involved (please let there be a text based language). Any additional information would be great.
Note: the company/product changed their name to Verivo in January.
Full Disclosure - I work as an engineer at Pyxis Mobile. However, I have been in the mobile space for 7+ years and have evaluated several approaches to mobile so hopefully this is helpful.
Pyxis Mobile provides a set of tools and components to build cross platform mobile applications. Let me outline them first.
1. Application Studio - All application development, backend integration, user provisioning and application maintenance/debugging is done w/in this tool. Application Studio (for now) is a Windows based desktop app.
2. Application Clients - Pyxis Mobile provides native client runtimes for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices. These runtimes get branded for the customer through a build service and are primed to point to a specific Application Server URL.
3. Application Server - Pyxis Mobile App Server runs on the .NET stack (on IIS). All client communication is proxied via this server. This server is able to connect to varied of backend systems (via the Plugin Framework listed below) and respond to the client in a mobile optimized manner. This server needs a SQL Server (2005 or newer) for configuration access, session management, logging and more.
4. Plugin Framework - The Plugin Framework is a backend component that provides system specific pre-built access to several of the enterprise and cloud based systems (Oracle, Siebel, SAP, Salesforce.com, social feeds, REST/SOAP web services, etc.) and also offers an API layer in .NET and Python (using IronPython) to allow even further customization. A plugin is essentially comprised of one or more DLLs or a Python file. These assets are then dynamically loaded to normalize communication between Pyxis Mobile and the customers' backend systems.
5. Push Services - This provides a cross-platform push layer that can poll a backend system for change and alert a mobile device via BlackBerry Push, Apple Push Notification Services (APNS) or Android's Cloud to Deice Messaging (C2DM).
6. OverWatch Analytics - This is an optional (but included) component to track users/devices and provide integrated analytics on what the users are using and what kind of devices and locales makes up your users.
The application itself is "coded" via configuration that is build in App Studio. Pyxis Mobile abstracts away from the code so that you can work at a higher level without having to worry about the wide array of device variances (GPS, touch screens, camera, accelerometer, push, screen resolution, etc.). You can drag fields onto a from, connect screens via menus or buttons, set up caching rules and more in this graphical utility. This configuration (essentially think of an XML like document) is interpreted by the native client layer to produce a rich application. There is also a scripting layer in Lua that allows to really customize behavior via code.
The real value of Pyxis Mobile comes up when you have change to make. The clients check for new configuration at app startup or if the server forces the client to get new configuration. This gives you great agility. Lets say once your application is deployed you want start using the swipe gesture to go next/prev through a set of records. This change on other platforms would mean writing some platform specific code to trap and interpret the swipe to perform a navigation (you couldn't trap a swipe on a non-touch screen). However, in Pyxis Mobile this is a simple configuration change that can be quickly deployed to the App Server and the clients automatically download and use the new configuration. No compilation, no redeployment or re-download for the end users.
I could keep going, but hope this provides some level of guidance.
Beware of Pyxis Mobile. While many of the things they say do work, there are some serious platform issues (as a geek) which I've experienced.
1) No version control system process. The Application studio can basically only be developed on by one person at a time or you risk having your changes overwritten by a fellow developer. The "principle of last save" is very much in play.
2) No unit test coverage. This isn't the biggest issue for a lot of people, but it's a concern for anyone who wants to work in the Enterprise world.
3) The middleware server gets you some value, but it's also a PITA to work with. There is no concept of "client side storage" unless you consider the middleware server the client side. If your phone goes out of coverage, your app won't work. Again, this might not be an issue for you.
4) The application has no true scripting language to work with. The middleware server allows you to intercept requests and responses and modify what you're doing there, but it's not the most elegant solution considering that a native application can have something as simple as "if this then X else Y." This can be accomplished with Pyxis, but the whole process is convoluted and more complicated than one would think it needs to be.
5) Lack of documentation. There's some training guides and the GUI is easy enough to get around for simple apps; however, when you need to do something with guts, you're left relying on Pyxis professional services. There's really no developer community to pose questions to.
I have more complaints, but they are more opinion oriented than Q/A oriented.
I just got note about the most recent comments. I don't want to turn this into a thread of back and forth, but did want to throw a couple of quick notes.
Regarding the points on version control and documentation/developer community - no big contest there. We are definitely working on these shortcommings. We have some basic pieces in place, but we have big plans to focus on this.
Regarding unit testing - we provide a very open interface to our middleware and backend components and they can be very easily unit tested with a bit of instrumentation. We run a ton of unit and integration tests internally. However, mobile unit testing is extremely difficult to get right. We'll investigate this further.
Regarding #4 around middleware and offline capabilities - things are a lot different now. With version 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 our products have increasing become more capabale offline and now features a secure local database if necessary. I can provide more details as necessary, but you can certainly login and operate the app even if you are out of coverage for weeks at a time!
Regarding #5, we've had a scripting engine for over 2 years. Its Lua based and its actually quite powerful and fast. It was BlackBerry only till the most recent release. Given Apple's change of stance on allowing scripting we now allow scripting on BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and Android as well now!
#RockMeetHardplace - feel free to reach out to me directly and I'll be happy to give you more detailed live demos of our latest platform. I am at - arunSPAMNOTatpyxismobiledotcom (drop the "SPAMNOT" and replace the at and dot). I happen to be the Director of Software and interested in knowing more about the issues you had.
I'm building a new Silverlight app for a photography studio. I was about to say "you have to have a Windows-based server hosting it" and then I thought, wait is that right? Looks like it's not. So I could point him toward a Linux host.
I know you have to register the MIME types (from a different SO thread). Are there any other caveats or gotchas that I need to know about? Assume for a second that I know next to nothing about Linux.
Edit: what if the app needs to talk to a database (mySQL)? Seems like I'd need to have Moonlight to get that going, which isn't gonna fly.
The only thing you have to do is ensure the web server delivers the correct MIME type for the .xap (which is application/x-silverlight-app). That's it.
There is nothing blocking you to host a Silverlight app(Client Plug-in) in any webserver on any platform.
Silverlight is client technology. There is nothign (but MIME types) that are required to host on non-MS servers. But if you have server-side code (e.g. web services or REST API's talking to your mySQL db), that server-side technology would need to work on Linux. That's completely separate from Silverlight. You might want to do the server stuff with Java or PHP (or other Linux-friendly platform) but Silverlight doesn't care what it talks to and can be served in a non-MS platform easily.
Regarding your edit (on mysql) -- no you would not need Moonlight (as that is client only as well). You'd need to expose your database functionality through a service layer of sorts as Shawn notes.