Deploy IPad application with its database - database

can any one tell me if I could deploy an IPad application with its pre-initialized database?
I'm using IOS developer Enterprise program account

Include the database as a resource in the bundle and clone it into the users document folder at launch.
The reason to clone is that you dont get write privileges on bundle resources.
Alternatively since this is not code you could download it from the corporate server at launch but since you are asking this question you probably dont want to do that.

Yes you can do it.
You can use sqlite in your ios application. You can create locally an prefilled sqlite database, and at this one to your xcode project.
In your project you must copy the sqlitedatabase from your resourcesfolder to the app's documents folder.

Depends on who's the developer of the app. If it's you, you can easily do so. Else, you won't be able (since apps are stored in a security sandbox).
If you really need to, you could consider jailbreaking them (you won't need a Enterprise Program though) so you can enter those sandboxes and add custom property lists to them.

Related

Can a desktop app update your websites database?

This is a hypothetical question that I don't seem to be able to find an answer to. In theory, could you write a desktop program which allows you to alter the database of a personal website? A simple example would be a blog, where instead of having to go online and log into Admin section of your website, you would have a desktop app where you could write a blog offline and once you have internet it would automatically update your website?
Would this theoretically be possible?
Yes, it is possible. However, probably not recommended as you would have to allow direct connections to your database through the firewall unless your desktop application made the same http/https pots that the website does when updating the database. At that point, you're just creating a new UI that calls the old UI to do the same actions.
If you are running Windows you could use the free tool Microsoft Live Writer for that. I am sure you can find other free tools for other OS out there.
There is not also an Open Source version of it Open Live Writer

How to transfer live WordPress site to Wamp?

I've got a wordpress site that I have been using for a year now and it is hosted with HostGator. I have got a few tests i would like to run on the site, but I would like to test it offline using wamp first before making it LIVE.
The problem is previously I was always making changes to the LIVE site, usually at hours when I get little to no traffic. However, that has changed now and I do get traffic most hours through out a 24hr day.
So my problem is:
How do i download my existing website to laptop (wamp) and make those changes with new theme? (total newbie, sorry!)
I use Windows 7, so not sure what I need to be doing to get the site working like a live site offline.
Once I have implemented the new changes, what is the best way to upload the updated site back to the HostGator server without having any downtime or errors for site visitors?
Is there anything else I need to install or do inorder for this to work? I hope you can give me as much information as possible or any links to any guides or articles that explain how to do this.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer!!!
If you're using Hostgator, the process is simple:
Install XAMPP or WAMPP on your computer;
Go to your cPanel, backup and download your website;
Extract the backup to your computer, specially the homedir and the sql;
Go to your local environment, access http://localhost/phpmyadmin
Create a new database, doesn't matter the name but for the example let's call it "database";
Inside that database, import the one taken from the backup;
create a new folder inside your htdocs with the name of your website, "example.com";
Extract the content of the homedir there;
edit wp-config with the following data:
Host: 'localhost'
Username: 'root'
Password: blank
access http://localhost/example.com
You can check a good tutorial about the subject here.
About putting the site live, I recommend you to use a GIT repository, however it's understandable that might be a little complicated and perhaps too much work for what you're trying to achieve.
Try to move your files directly from your local to live environment using Filezilla or WinSCP, the drag and drop should replace the files live and the downtime should be minimal.
Instead of WAMP, you can always use VirtualBox to install CentOS or Ubuntu/Debian.
You can go one further and install either CentminMod to automate creating a LAMP, or a full panel like ISPConfig or Virtualmin.
That take care of create the environment.
Create a new account on the LAMP, using the same domain name.
You can FTP with Windows to get the files, but networking Windows and Linux is a pain. The better option is to use the command line (CLI) in the Linux VM to ftp the files from Hostgator to the VM. This guide will help with that process: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/FTP-3.html
Then your only concern is the MySQL database. And for this, you have several options.
For me, the easiest is to buy (or try!) SQLyog on Windows, and then copy the database from the Hostgator source to the localhost destination. Some mild networking is needed for Windows to see the Linux VM, but nothing as complex as file sharing (the FTP issue). SQLyog is far quicker than backing up the database, then restoring it -- especially since you can run into memory issues doing it this way. It fully depends on the size of the database.
The cheap/free backup>restore method is to use phpMyAdmin.
WordPress also has plugins, of varying cost, but you still have the possible backup>restore memory issue there as well.
When done, just copy it the other way, again using SQLyog and CLI ftp. You'll still have some downtime, but it will hopefully be minimal.
As a newbie, this probably seems like rocket science, but at least it gives you a good place to start. Welcome to the world of locally dev'ing sites!

Wordpress distributed development and database management

I am looking for a way to handle a distributed development for Wordpress. For the moment I set up a shared git repository on which I have all the code of the website versioned. The problem I'm having regards how to handle the database. Clearly I need our site running while we (me and other developers) improve the website locally. This means that the user of the website (which is not up yet) will be able to modify our database (user registration, etc.) while we are working on the development of the site locally, using a dump of the database.
What I am trying to understand is the best practice to handle a shared development like this, while the site is running and thus the database can change.
Not sure what you develop, theme or plugins but with WordPress the change in the database should not have an effect on your development, unless you set something up where the user can create new custom posts, with that I mean a new "custom post" not a new post based on a custom post, which could potentially change the behavior of what you are developing.
If the user runs into something odd because of what they did, well that's called bug fixing, the good news is that you can just export and import the database to fix whatever they run into.
Database data changes isn't your problem (dump exchange, if needed, solve most)
Changes of structure are another big question, you can try to see (for brain-powered solution) on LiquiBase

Update a local/client Microsoft Access Database from a server (MS SQL Server2005)

I've got a website that runs on a shared hosting environment, using ASP.net 2.0 (C#) and MS SQL Server 2005. I've recently been asked if I can integrate my website with a piece of third party desktop software that uses the Access runtime as its database (transparent to the end user).
Primarily I want to be able to offer users of my website the option of exporting their data into the Access database on their local machine. The data schema's match sufficiently, the question is how to actually do this, and in the simplest way possible for the user.
Simply having a webpage update the local Access database isn't possible due to the obvious security restrictions. I've considered asking them to upload the Access database to the server, so I can migrate the data then allow them to download it again, however the competency of the users of this software is such that even locating the Access database, let alone uploading and downloading it from the website might be too complicated.
I've also considered if Adobe Air or Silverlight could help here, but don't know them well enough to know for sure. Similarly I'm assuming another exe could be written to perform this task that the user could simply download and run, however my experience is in web development, not program development, so this isn't a 100% certainty for me, or an ideal development option for me.
So, can this be done, and if so what technique can achieve this, with the stated aims being ease of use for the end user, followed by ease of development by someone with web development as their main skill. Many thanks!
You may find this answer of interest: Best way to stream files in ASP.NET
It is about transferring a file from the server. You could save Excel or CSV and use that to update Access.
Instead of trying to do this in a web page you might just expose some views from your sql server to some client specific logins.
Then within the Access application, allow them to tie to your sql server. You might even provide an access application for getting the data from your site and stuffing it in their local access database.
In my work we have done something similar that is transparent to the user by creating an ActiveX control. The problem is that you are limiting the users to use only Internet Explorer.
I think that the best way to achieve what you are trying to do is by installing a service in the client's computer. If creating a service is beyond your experience you can post a project in a place like oDesk and find somebody that can help you with the development for the money that you are willing to pay to complete your project.
Good Luck.

What's the benefit of deploying a war file instead of an exploded directory?

I'm configuring an installer for our product which, up until now, was distributed as a war file, usually on tomcat. Once tomcat has exploded the directory, the user has to open a properties file and set their database connection information. I'd like the installer to do this (we're using install4j) but there doesn't seem to be a built-in way to modify a text file inside a war file. I could just have the installer deploy the app as an exploded directory, which would save me the trouble here, but what do I lose by deploying like that instead of deploying the war?
It might work better to set up the database connection as a JNDI Datasource, rather than hand-editing a properties file inside the webapp/ directory. This is especially important if you want to allow users to re-deploy the application from the .WAR archive without overwriting their local configuration changes.
Of course, the JNDI setup isn't going to be trivially accomplished through the installer, either, since the mechanism used varies from app server to app server. However, any competent Java application server administrator should know how to configure a named datasource. Furthermore, by delegating responsibility to the app server, you allow your users to take advantage of connection pooling, clustering, and any other features provided by the datasource implementation bundled with their application server of choice.
Not much I would think - perhaps a bit of disk space, but if that's not a problem you'd be fine. Have you thought of having the installer generate the properties file and using a ZIP library (.WAR is really a .ZIP - rename it to a .ZIP and see what you get :) ) to replace or add it in?

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