Retrieve info from server

Solar2D Network
#1

Hey guys, I have a few questions.

There’s this app idea that I’d like to sell to hedge funds. Basically it would be an app for the shareholders themselves, where they could access basic information about his fund. (e.g. today’s performance, basic risk variables, etc). I thought about having the staff from the fund to fulfill a very simple excel spreadsheet everyday, run a macro (built by myself) that accesses a sql server and updates a few tables with today’s infos. On the client-side, the Corona interface queries the DB and retrieves the info.

I’ve read some articles and thought about having the fund rent a droplet cloud service, run MySQL from there, and have the excel Macro update the DB. On the client-side I’ve thought about having the client query the sql server from a php query for safety issues, through the app. I’d have to decode from JSON I’ve been told.

I found Mysql exceedingly complex and the whole thing overkill for a few bits of information (e.g. 5-10 fields). Is there a simpler way? Is the Php absolutely necessary? What if the funds want more information? (e.g. historical performances, etc) What’s the best and easiest way to work this out?

I’d like to build a prototype so I could have something to show for.

I hope I’ve made my intentions clear, but if not please feel free to ask.

Thanks in advance.

Marcelo

#2

There are other ways to do this. There are databases known as “NOSQL” databases, like MongoDB that provide simple table based key-value pair records.

You can also use technology like node.js instead of PHP that is in particular NOSQL friendly and spits out a JSON object which works well with Corona’s network.request() and json.decode() functions.

If you’re going to be using Microsoft products like Excel, perhaps a .NET based hosting setup could be more friendly to you. Want to do a Google spreadsheet? You can get JSON data that represents that spreadsheet. 

You have options.

Rob

#3

Hi Rob,

Thank you very much for your reply. I’ve looked into MongoDB and they offer a free DB cloud service, Mongo Atlas. I think that cuts a lot of corners. I’m researching into it. Coming to think of it, it might be quite a bit of data if the clients demand historical performances up to a year. Perhaps a more structured DB would be the best option. I just want to make a simple interface for the customer (the fund) to update the tables. But I imagine it wouldn’t be such an ordeal to write an excel Macro or a program that uploads it into the DB. I’m thinking of converting it to csv and uploading it somehow. I’d just like the customer to press a button or open an .exe and it would do the whole update thing.

Regards,

Marcelo

#4

There are other ways to do this. There are databases known as “NOSQL” databases, like MongoDB that provide simple table based key-value pair records.

You can also use technology like node.js instead of PHP that is in particular NOSQL friendly and spits out a JSON object which works well with Corona’s network.request() and json.decode() functions.

If you’re going to be using Microsoft products like Excel, perhaps a .NET based hosting setup could be more friendly to you. Want to do a Google spreadsheet? You can get JSON data that represents that spreadsheet. 

You have options.

Rob

#5

Hi Rob,

Thank you very much for your reply. I’ve looked into MongoDB and they offer a free DB cloud service, Mongo Atlas. I think that cuts a lot of corners. I’m researching into it. Coming to think of it, it might be quite a bit of data if the clients demand historical performances up to a year. Perhaps a more structured DB would be the best option. I just want to make a simple interface for the customer (the fund) to update the tables. But I imagine it wouldn’t be such an ordeal to write an excel Macro or a program that uploads it into the DB. I’m thinking of converting it to csv and uploading it somehow. I’d just like the customer to press a button or open an .exe and it would do the whole update thing.

Regards,

Marcelo