# Business (document management) application in rails

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 8, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087 "2009-04-08T23:54:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcos)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087/1 "2009-04-08T23:54:54Z")

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Hi, I’m a student with no real experience in developing serious  
enterprise apps…  
still now I have the possibility to try…  
Here’s my question:  
I’m building a rails app that connects to a database, and is essentially  
a front end to it, to manage projects and related documents. The  
interface in xhtml/css/javascript is a nightmare. I need complex stuff,  
like tables with resizeable columns, sorting, and all that stuff … for  
dozens of tables…  
and cross browser compatibility isn’t easy.

I thought to use remote XUL. It’s mozilla only, I know, but that’s not a  
problem.

Do you have any opinion about it? Some first hand experience?  
Are you aware of any nasty bug / missing feature or security concerns?

In short, what do you think?

thanks  
Luca

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**Author:** ![marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcos)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087/2 "2009-04-08T23:59:18Z")

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Have you ever looked at GoogleDocs?

It’s just HTML/CSS/JS, don’t overestimate what you really need to do 😉

Seriously, if you’ll really have a complex interface, any technology  
you select is going to be hard to work and customize. Why not just  
write a desktop app to do that?

- 

Maurício Linhares  
[http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/](http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/) (pt-br) | [http://blog.codevader.com/](http://blog.codevader.com/)  
(en)

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Marco Signati

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**Author:** ![marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcos)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087/3 "2009-04-09T00:11:21Z")

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well, my app should be used from everywhere in the world… not easily  
accomplished through desktop applications (establish secure connections  
to remote database), and moreover it’ll be updated frequently, and I  
certainly don’t want to make people keep installing new versions…

any other comment?  
Luca

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@marcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcos)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/business-document-management-application-in-rails/165087/4 "2009-04-09T00:16:51Z")

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Flex? Silverlight? JavaFX?

There’s a load of “rich client” options if you think HTML/CSS/JS isn’t  
going to solve your problem.

- 

Maurício Linhares  
[http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/](http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/) (pt-br) | [http://blog.codevader.com/](http://blog.codevader.com/)  
(en)

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 7:11 PM, Marco Signati