In that case a conversion will be as easy as open the app in C11 or C12. There may possibly be 1 or 2 quirky errors from tightening of code in the compiler. But should be a quick and easy thing.
IP driver should also be quick and easy as little to no code changes are required, but a server component program is required to be installed on the server.
You may find that you’re really happy with it at that point and go no further.
I’m not sure either of these solutions, IP Driver or SQL, actually address your problem? I’m not sure you’ve explained how your users access the app remotely, apart from your comment about Remote Desktop Server. I suspect there are hardware and networking solutions to your remote access problem?
I know Rohan/@JobCard has had experience with remote access and I’d also like to hear what Bob Campbell/@softwaretailor has to say.
UNLESS they modified the templates
I changed the export templates to PDF, TXT, etc., and that was the most complicated part of porting from C10 to C12.
I added an attribute to save the original destination file name, adding the necessary methods to allow the user to modify the destination so they can know where it was saved, since I couldn’t find a direct way to do it with the original template.
Other than that, I think everything works relatively the same except for some changes in OMIT.
I’m not sure what you mean by “they run the .exe right from our file server”.
Do they logon on the server? If so, the program is running on the server.
That is, the program is running locally on the server, using the server’s CPU, RAM and the data files that are on the server’s drives.
If so, the program would run fast, like running on a standalone computer.
It could use TPS files or connect to a SQL database.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “who run it through a remote desktop server”.
There is a Windows utility called Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe) that lets a user connect to a remote computer. So, a remote desktop server is a computer that is configured to accept remote desktop connections.
But you said, “who run it through a remote desktop server”.
Do you mean simply that the user uses Remote Desktop Connection to logon to the server and runs the program on that server?
Again, this should be very fast if the internet upload speed of the server is at least 40 Mbps and user’s internet download speed is at least 10 Mbps, and the latency is less than 40 ms.
There are many other ways to logon to a remote computer besides Remote Desktop Connection. You can use RemoteApp, which lets you run a program on the server without the user seeing the desktop of the user’s session on the server.
There are also “thin client” devices that only connect to a remote server.
I suspect the slowness is because your server is located onsite at your business, and your internet upload speed is not too fast, maybe less than 10 Mbps.
So, my advice is to get a better internet service or put your application on a cloud server, that is, at a commercial data center, where the upload speed is 1 Gbps. This would make it very fast for remote users as well as onsite users.
I put a message on the third-party newsgroup asking if anyone is interesting in testing their app or a SoftVelocity demo app using a cloud server. Perhaps you would be interested.
I’m looking for at least 3 developers before I ask my cloud vendor for a free test server (with Windows Server 2025) and a free TSplus MobileWeb Edition license.
Bob
ok let me better explain this. we have a gigabit fiber internet as our main internet connection. We have a server with all the program files on it, including the TPS file and the EXEs, the entire program is shared via a network drive. We then have shortcuts on people’s desktops that open the .exe from that network drive and run it on their computers, accessing the TPS file via the shared file. If that helps explain it better. They don’t run the exes directly on their computers; they run them from a network drive. We also have some TS Plus licenses, but we don’t have enough for everyone. We could purchase more TS Plus licenses, but if upgrading to Clarion and implementing the IP driver improves speed, we would rather do that instead.
If you have TS Plus - I would upgrade that first before even considering anything else.
By their very nature Terminal Service systems perform much better (as long as they have the RAM, CPU and Disk Speed) because the user session is effectively using the TS Plus host’s resources and the network traffic is effectively only impacting the RDP.
I didn’t pick up on the fact that you had TS Plus you’ll get much better performance on a Terminal Server rather than working across a network.
Network traffic can suffer from latency issues (especially on a WAN) - the IP Driver will improve performance, but nowhere near the level you get from running a properly resourced Terminal Server.
What are the specs of your TS Plus Host?
What version of TS Plus are you running?
What’s the current licensed user count for your TS Plus Host?
It is possible to run IP Driver server in a hybrid setting where the users in the local office are running the exes from their pc (or a shared folder) - but if you have the budget and the host is powerful enough I’d be upgrading your TS Plus licences before doing anything else.
Hi Chase,
That clears it up some.
We then have shortcuts on people’s desktops that open the .exe from that network drive and run it on their computers
Okay, you have a LAN environment. The program is stored on the server, but you have desktop shortcuts to run the program on the local computer.
They don’t run the exes directly on their computers; they run them from a network drive.
It doesn’t matter very much whether the program is located on the local computer or on the server. It is running on the local computer (using the RAM and CPU of the local computer, and there is network traffic of the data between the local computer and the network drive.
A gigabit network certainly helps to speed up the traffic, but you probably have Opportunistic Locking (Oplock) issues, which greatly slow down the program when more than one person uses it.
A SQL database will mostly fix this issue. There is still some network traffic, but only the rows and columns in a query (for a browse list) are given to the program.
Similarly, the IP driver would speed things up by reducing the network traffic. A SQL database is optimized for queries (based on previous queries), but the IP driver isn’t.
But if you really want to have high speed, then you should log on to the server and run the program on the server using the server’s RAM and CPU, and the server has direct access to the files on its drive.
If you use TSplus for licensing, you don’t need to use SQL unless your files are huge. You don’t need to use the IP driver. You don’t have to change your Clarion code any. And there are no OpLock issues.
It really is a good solution.
You only need as many TSplus licenses as the maximum number of concurrent users that would run the program, not the total number of users. And Clarion developers get a 30% discount.
The server computer can be Windows Server or Windows Pro. I have clients with either one.
TSplus has a connection file that allows you to log on to the server and immediately run your program, and you don’t see the desktop on the server. Instead, you continue to see your local desktop in the background. This speeds things up a little bit and gives you some protection from users wondering around on the server. (It may be a little disconcerting, because it will appear the program is running on your local computer, but it is not). When you exit your program, it automatically logs you off the server.
Users will have a desktop shortcut to this connection file. (It is not an .exe, so your anti-virus won’t put it in quarantine).
The connection file also allows you to open PDF files on your local computer. So, when you create a report as a PDF file, the file is first saved on the server, and then TSplus will automatically copy it to your local computer and open it for you to view using your local default PDF viewer. It goes so fast, you hardly notice this happening. And if you want to print it, it goes to your local printer.
Besides the cost of the TSplus licenses, you need enough RAM to run multiple instances of your program on the server.
The server can handle about 16 concurrent users with 8 GB of RAM. It can handle about 40 concurrent users with 16 GB of RAM.
Another bonus of using TSplus to log on to the server, is you don’t need to have a sign-on window in your program. Users will log on to the server with their Windows username and password. They don’t need to sign on again. You can still have a Users file to control what functions they access or keep track of when they log on, etc.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Bob
part of the issue with that is we are pretty maxed out on our server infrastructure now. we would have about 15 users concurrently and we currently only have licensing for 5. plus our physical server infrastructure is pretty maxed out. we would spend as much money expanding our servers as we would upgrading clarion and paying a dev to implement ip driver. and we would like to have clarion upgraded. so we are thinking of preforming the clarion upgrade this year and hopefully that will help us speed it up enough to not need to expand ts plus for a bit longer.
Hi Chase,
Okay.
It just seems upgrading your TSplus license to 25 users would be the cheapest route by a lot.
You won’t have to buy the IP Driver or make the necessary changes by a dev to your application for it or upgrade your clarion version. No changes are needed.
If you go with the IP Driver, you still have plenty of network traffic and you still need enough memory on the server to handle multiple threads in the IP Driver app.
Using TSplus would also give you the best performance.
I don’t know how your server infrastructure is maxed out, but all you need is a Windows Pro computer with 16 GB of RAM and a big enough drive for your data files. Nothing fancy.
Bob
Hi Bob,
Depends.
Generally the IP Server side of things is very good with resources.
My Jobcard Back Office module (uses roughly between 120mb to 250mb fully loaded) uses about 45kb at the server side (claipdat.exe).
Unlike the Appbroker (H5) or Anyscreen the IP Server doesn’t load instances of the exe. The IP Server (listener) is IPReq.exe which loads claipdat.exe per client instance.
If you’re running the client exe on the Terminal Server as well as the IP Server then that will use resources there as well.
I think if Chase’s budget doesn’t allow him to upgrade the Terminal Server to the hardware and licences he needs then his plan makes sense.
It’s always a trade off if you don’t have the budget. 
The biggest issue for the site will be latency for remote users if they’re not on TS Plus. The IP Driver should reduce that for everyone anyway.
On the LAN - they’ll notice a vast improvement.
Cheers
Rohan
Hi Chase,
I think your “hybrid” plan makes sense until you have the budget.
You could look at reconditioned second hand hardware in the future if you don’t have the budget (it’s been winner for me and some of my clients).
In Australia, often corporates and Government departments turn over their computer hardware every three years or so - and bureaucracies tend to be the same wherever you go 
feel free to email me rohan at jobcard dot biz
cheers
Rohan
Hi Rohan,
Thanks for the clarification with your real-world experience.
Bob