Originally posted by dkellgren
I don't know anything about NFuse.
A note about Web-Enabling with Citrix. They have this REALLY COOL "plug-in" that TOTALLY allows you to run ANY existing application in a web browser. It's RELLY slick. It loads a large "window" in the web browser and it acts as a portal to your application that you can hit via an http address.
This is called NFuse
Nfuse is a layer that come over Citrix and enable to publish ANY application (including Progress) on the web.
The only problem with it is that you have to open a port on your firewall to allow the traffic. Trying to get your customers to "open ports on their firewall" just ain't a good idea. Many won't do it because they don't fully understand what you're trying do and just sounds suspicious... and I don't blame them.
Mmhhh.....wether you use Citrix or Progress Webclient, don't you have to open your port ? Anyway, when you use internet solutions, you have to focus seriously on security. In my opinion Citrix + a good firewall can block most of the external attacks. If you install NFuse on a Linux server (that what's we did in my company), you can get rid of all W2k security holes.
We use Citrix Metaframe. It is a wonderful solution in terms of its ability to speed up your applications across a WAN.
I totally agree with that. Sometimes you can even use a 56k modem if your application do not use too much graphics (bmp, ico..are consuming much of the bandwith)
The biggest problem seems to be adding another layer of complexity. We've gone through many gyrations of problems from stability issues to printing issues to compatibility issues. For example, for some reason, a client would loose all their connected printers. After going back and forth between Citrix, Microsoft, and Progress, it was finally determined to be a string limitation on Progress's part. But bouncing around to all the tech supports was a nightmare.
Well, printing has always been a pain in the ***, whatever you use (Java, C++, Delphi or Progress). The problem is a bit more complicated with Citrix, because the printing flux has to go from the Citrix server to your local printer. The problem is that the printing flux is taking too much bandwidth (imagine that you want to print a Word document with graphics and images
). Hopefully, you can use Uniprint, a nice printing-tool for thin client that reduce drastically your printing bandwith (watch
www.uniprint.net).
We had some problems when we tried to connect some medical devices on the thin client because the COM port was not mapped automatically by Citrix. But we have cleared that with the Citrix hotline.
Technically, Citrix is FAR better than the Progress Webclient. But Citrix has a real limitation : its price ! But quality is always expensive , isnt't it ?
Cheers
